We’re mashing up quantum computing, AI infrastructure, and space stocks as we dig into a handful of headline-grabbing earnings reports. From GPU farms on the ground to satellites in orbit, we’re asking what’s investable now and what still belongs in the “sci-fi someday” bucket.
In this podcast, Motley Fool analyst Emily Flippen and contributors Jason Hall and Keith Speights:
- Break down CoreWeave‘s latest results, including booming backlog, heavy capex, and whether an AI infrastructure arms race can still reward shareholders.
- Compare CoreWeave’s reality to “up-and-coming” quantum names like Rigetti, IonQ, D-Wave, and Quantum Computing Inc., and make the case for (or against) taking the tech-giant route with Alphabet or Microsoft instead.
- Explain why Rocket Lab‘s record revenue, rising margins, and growing backlog are bright spots in a bruised space sector — and how government shutdown drama factors into the story.
- Dig into AST SpaceMobile‘s satellite-to-cell strategy, big-name carrier partners, ambitious launch plans, and why 2026 could be a make-or-break year for the stock.
To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool’s free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you’re ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.
This podcast was recorded on Nov.11, 2025.
Emily Flippen: We’re using quantum computing and AI to blast off into space as we digest earnings today on Motley Fool Money. It’s Tuesday, November 11th. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I’m your host Emily Flippen and today, I’m joined by Fool analysts Jason Hall and Keith Speights to discuss two trendy topics quantum computing and space travel. Well, really, we’ll be digging into earnings for three companies that are trying to make one or both of those things a reality. We’ll get to our two space and space adjacent businesses, Rocket Lab, and AST SpaceMobile later in the show. But, Jason, I really want to start with CoreWeave today. Now, CoreWeave isn’t directly a quantum computing stock.
Jason Hall: They’re not in space either.
Emily Flippen: They’re not in space, fair enough. They sell in the GPUX that’s not quantum processing units, but they do sometimes get lumped into that space because of their close connection with NVIDIA, and they do have that hypergrowth AI centered business. I understand why people lump them together. Shares are down nearly 15% today, despite the fact that they saw yet another continuation of a booming top line. Are you excited about CoreWeave at least more than the market seems to be today?
Jason Hall: I don’t want to say I’m excited, but I see what’s exciting about the business, and I also understand why the stock is coming down. It has gone on a bit of a parabolic run since it went public. The debut price, it was up trading the first day after the stock debuted. It’s more than doubled. It’s come down over the past few months. But there’s still a tremendously rich valuation based on the expectations. Even with the sell off, that’s important to remember. Here’s the core for those who haven’t followed CoreWeave, it’s built up some really strong IP that it says makes its data centers better and more efficient for AI developers. It’s a who’s who in AI and cloud computing. It has this almost $60 billion backlog. Fifty billion of that is contracted remaining performance obligation or RPO. Growth rates are certainly astronomical if we can keep that theme going. They’re likely to remain exceptionally high for some time to come. There are also some signs that its scale up is driving improvements. If we look at its financial results, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income and its margins. They did improve in the quarter. Adjusted losses fell and I think this is a business that is likely to be a lot larger in five years. But even with those improvements and the growth, it’s far less clear how much of that growth is going to flow through to investors. This isn’t a software company. It’s an infrastructure business with a technology overlay, and building all of the data centers that it needs to meet demand is coming at a massive cost. We’re going to see a lot of that cost to the balance sheet. Just for some context, we got the updated full year guidance. Actually, one of the reasons the stock is down is the guidance was a little bit lighter for the fourth quarter in the full year than investors were expecting. But management’s calling for about $5 billion in revenue for the full year. That’s more than double last year, but it’s going to spend $13 billion on CapEx projects and it’s going to pay about $1.4 billion in interest expense. So 25% of its revenue is going to go right back out the door just to service debt. At the same time, it’s been really acquisitive. Since it went public this spring, it’s already announced four acquisitions. That’s a lot of money flowing out the door that investors need to see, deliver both continued growth and also help defend margins. Here’s the thing, the CapEx that we’re going to see this year, it’s going to have to fund a lot more. The thing is the way the business works, you have to fund the CapEx before the data centers generate revenue. Probably over time, the math should start becoming less unfavorable. But the risk here is we see this ravenous appetite for new AI infrastructure. If that becomes seeded, the momentum stops before CoreWeave gets its business to scale. Now the other part, too is, let’s be honest, motes are ephemeral, if existing at all in technology. CoreWeave’s technical advantages today are helping it win big sales, but can it maintain them in the next contract cycle with its customers? If not, it’s going to be impossible to have any pricing power in what ultimately I think is going to be a commodity, and that’s just selling compute cycles if you can’t show customers a reason to pay up.
Emily Flippen: A hot take there, Jason. Motes are ephemeral. Keith, do you agree? There’s no real mote here for CoreWeave?
Keith Speights: I actually do agree with what Jason said. I will say this, though. The company posted really phenomenal Q3 results. The numbers look great, but as Jason mentioned, the guidance was a little lower than expected, and that’s what has caused this stock to sell off. But I think it’s important to dig into a little bit of why that happened, why that guidance wasn’t quite as high as what analysts were looking for. One of the main reasons was that CoreWeave, one of their third party data center developers was simply running behind on a major project, so they weren’t able to recognize the revenue like they wanted to. But I do think this underscores something investors need to be aware of with this stock. CoreWeave’s fortunes hinge on several things over which the company simply doesn’t have much control, including the contractors it uses, power availability. Right now, that’s not a big issue for the company. But down the road, that could become a huge issue, just the availability of getting power to run these data centers.
Emily Flippen: Well, if it’s a big issue for CoreWeave, it’s definitely a big issue for a company that we’re also going to be talking about today, Keith, and that’s perhaps the most well known quantum computing stock that also reported yesterday evening that shares of Rigetti computing. They were down mildly after mixed results, and it seems like both CoreWeave and quantum stocks get a bad wrap. Does this quarter prove that it’s well earned or are those opportunities here yet for prudent investors?
Keith Speights: Well, Emily, you’re exactly right. Rigetti is definitely among the most widely followed up and coming quantum computing stocks, but up and coming often means not there yet. That’s the case with Rigetti, but not so much with CoreWeave. Rigetti reported Q3 revenue of only get this $1.9 million. That’s pocket change for CoreWeave. CoreWeave spent a whopping $1.9 billion on CapEx alone in Q3. Also, Rigetti’s revenue declined around 18% year over year in its latest quarter, that’s not great. Meanwhile, CoreWeave’s revenue nearly doubled. These companies are very different. But to be fair, quantum computing is in a much earlier stage than AI hyper scaling. Rigetti has some great potential, especially if it can deliver on its goals to deliver 150 plus cubit quantum computer near the end of next year and a 1,000 plus cubit system by the end of 2027. But it’s important to remember there are other quantum computing companies out there that have ambitious plans, too. IonQ, D-Wave Quantum, the ticker there is QBTS and Quantum Computing Incorporated, a very aptly name, by the way, ticker there QUBT. Those are three other smaller players that are making waves.
Jason Hall: The thing that I keep coming back to is that the first semiconductor came out of a Bell Labs laboratory back in the 1940s. How early are we on quantum? Is it going to be one of these working out of a garage start-ups, all are Apple or HP, that’s really going to be the winner? We have some real whales in the tech ocean, like Alphabet and IBM, and even NVIDIA, that’s made its share of seen investments in quantum computing. Is that where investors should really be looking?
Keith Speights: Jason, you make a great point. I think it’s possible that any of the stocks I’ve mentioned, Rigetti, IonQ, D-Wave and Quantum Computing Incorporated, they could be big winners if their quantum computing efforts pay off. But the least risky way to invest in quantum computing, in my opinion, anyway, is to buy shares of one of those tech giants that have major quantum computing initiatives going on. Alphabet, with its Google Quantum AI unit is a great pick. Microsoft is a great pick, I think. These are the stocks I think that investors who aren’t huge risk takers, but they want to potentially profit from this quantum computing boom should really take a hard look at.
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