Inside CoreWeave’s Explosive Marketing Spend—and Why Chance the Rapper Is Now the Star of Its AI Campaign

Will the AI cloud company’s celeb-studded marketing push pay off?

BY ANNABEL BURBA, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT @ANNIEBURBA

Photo: Courtesy CoreWeave

CoreWeave is teaming up with Chance the Rapper, of all people, as it ramps up its marketing spend to reach tech experts and increase brand awareness through TV, podcast, and airport ads.

The Livingston, New Jersey-based AI cloud company’s stock tumbled late last week after reporting higher than expected losses during its fourth quarter earnings. That same report showed that CoreWeave’s sales and marketing budget grew from $18 million in 2024 to $152 million in 2025, a 740-plus percent increase.

A few weeks ago, the company made one of its biggest marketing moves since changing its name from Atlantic Crypto to CoreWeave in 2019 by launching its first large-scale ad campaign.

Titled “Ready for anything, ready for AI,” the campaign features three-time Grammy winner Chance the Rapper musing about AI’s seemingly limitless possibilities.

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“We’re in a historical moment right now with AI,” Jean English, who joined CoreWeave as its chief marketing officer last year, told Business Insider. “Our main goal of this campaign was to codify our leadership at this pivotal moment in time.”

Chance the Rapper’s fanbase seemed disappointed to learn about his partnership with CoreWeave, however. When the artist posted about it on Instagram, he received hundreds of negative comments. “Noooo Chance don’t sell out to AI,” one user wrote.

CoreWeave is staying “very disciplined” with its ad spend, English told Business Insider, adding that her team “thought about doing the Super Bowl” but ultimately decided the $8 million price tag wasn’t worth just 30 seconds of airtime.

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