CoreWeave, the Nvidia-backed AI infrastructure upstart, has priced its IPO at $40 per shareraising $1.5 billion and marking the largest U.S. tech listing in over three years. The final price came in below the expected $47$55 range, and the share count dropped to 37.5 million. Still, the offering gives CoreWeave a roughly $19 billion valuationan impressive feat for a company that just booked a $2 billion revenue run-rate and a net loss of $863 million. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is doubling down with a $250 million order, and OpenAI isn't just a clientit's also investing $350 million in CoreWeave stock as part of a sweeping $11.9 billion contract.

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This IPO could be a reset moment for venture-backed tech. After two years of near silence, the market's watching to see if CoreWeave opens the floodgates. Other names like Klarna, StubHub, and Discord are waiting in the wings. But CoreWeave isn't playing small ballit's gunning straight for Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the AI cloud infrastructure race. Its revenue grew more than 700% last year. Its biggest customer? Microsoft. Also on board: Meta (NASDAQ:META), IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Cohere. This isn't a science project. It's a business with real traction and serious demand.

But there's a catch: CoreWeave's business burns cash. Fast. Between building data centers and locking down hardware, the company's growth requires heavy spending and long-term bets. That said, it may be one of the few startups with enough AI tailwindsand enterprise-grade clientsto justify the pace. For investors, CoreWeave isn't just another IPO. It's a test case. If this works, the tech IPO window might be cracked open again. And if it doesn'twell, it's back to the bunker for venture capital.