What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does CoreWeave (CRWV) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, CoreWeave generated $5.98B of operating cash flow and -$10.6B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -177.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did CoreWeave (CRWV) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent CoreWeave's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

CoreWeave (CRWV) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.98B

Capex

-$16.6B

Free Cash Flow

-$10.6B

FCF Margin

-177.5%

Cash flow waterfall for CoreWeave (CRWV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$10.6B

Cash flow breakdown for CoreWeave (CRWV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.98B	$5.98B
Capital Expenditure	-$16.6B	-$10.6B
Free Cash Flow	-$10.6B	-$10.6B
Acquisitions	-$108M	-$10.7B
Other Investing	$159M	-$10.6B
Net Debt Change	$9.53B	-$1.03B
Other Financing & FX	$1.88B	$843M
Net Cash Increase	$844M	$844M

Operating Cash Flow$5.98B
Capital Expenditure-$16.6B
Free Cash Flow-$10.6B
Acquisitions-$108M
Other Investing$159M
Net Debt Change$9.53B
Other Financing & FX$1.88B
Net Cash Increase$844M

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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