## CoreWeave CEO Defends AI Circular Deals as ‘Working Together’
The CEO of CoreWeave, Michael Intrator, has come to the defense of the increasingly common “circular deals” within the artificial intelligence ecosystem, framing them not as a sign of financial artifice but as a collaborative and effective way for companies to operate and grow.
These arrangements, which often see AI startups receiving investment from an infrastructure provider like CoreWeave, in turn commit to spending a portion of that capital on the investor’s GPU compute services, have drawn scrutiny from some who question their true economic merit and market validation.
However, Intrator argues that such deals are a natural evolution of partnerships in a capital-intensive industry. “We view it as working together,” he stated, emphasizing that these are symbiotic relationships where both parties benefit. CoreWeave gains committed customers for its specialized AI compute infrastructure, while the startups secure crucial funding and access to the high-demand, scarce GPUs necessary to develop and scale their models.
The defense positions these transactions not as a closed loop designed to inflate valuations, but as a pragmatic approach to fostering innovation and building out the foundational layers of the AI economy, allowing promising companies to access essential resources that might otherwise be out of reach.