CoreWeave, the AI cloud infrastructure company that went public on NASDAQ under the ticker CRWV, is looking at a surprisingly old-school solution to a very new-economy problem. The company is exploring financial derivatives, specifically put options on memory-chip stocks, to hedge against the risk that DRAM and storage chip prices could fall below levels it has contractually guaranteed to its suppliers.
The discussions are still in their preliminary stages, and no hedges have actually been executed yet.
Why CoreWeave needs a hedge in the first place
CoreWeave has locked itself into long-term supply agreements with memory manufacturers including Micron and SanDisk. Those contracts include price-floor guarantees for the suppliers, meaning CoreWeave has essentially promised to pay at least a certain amount per chip regardless of where the market goes.
If prices fall below the contracted levels, CoreWeave gets stuck paying above-market rates for its chips. Memory and storage prices have climbed sharply as AI workloads explode, but suppliers like SK Hynix and Micron aren’t expected to bring significant new manufacturing capacity online until early 2028. That creates a window where prices could remain elevated, but also a scenario where a sudden demand slowdown or faster-than-expected capacity additions could send prices tumbling, leaving CoreWeave exposed.
