The AI cloud infrastructure company is weighing put options on memory-chip stocks to protect against price declines, borrowing a playbook from airlines and energy companies.
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.
Borrowing from the energy trading playbook #
There is no direct futures market for memory chips. So CoreWeave is looking at put options on memory-chip stocks as a proxy hedge. The logic is straightforward: if memory chip prices collapse, the stock prices of companies that make those chips would likely fall too. Owning puts on those stocks would generate gains that could offset the losses from CoreWeave’s above-market supply contracts.
What this means for investors and the broader market #
For CoreWeave shareholders, the hedging discussion signals that management is proactively thinking about risk management given the company’s significant supply-chain exposure. It is also an implicit acknowledgment that the company’s supply contracts carry meaningful downside risk.
For memory-chip makers like Micron and SK Hynix, if cloud operators start systematically hedging against chip price declines, it could create new dynamics in how supply agreements are structured. Suppliers might push back on contracts that include price floors if they know their customers are simultaneously betting against their stock prices.
Investors in the memory-chip space should also pay attention to the 2028 timeline for new manufacturing capacity. The gap between current supply constraints and future capacity additions creates a period of elevated uncertainty. If CoreWeave moves forward with actual derivative positions, the timing and structure of those trades could offer a useful signal about where insiders expect memory prices to head over the next 18 to 24 months.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our