Forget CoreWeave. 3 Profitable AI Stocks That Don’t Burn $30B a Year

Those who bought CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) are now kicking themselves as the fragile composition of these data center startups gets more obvious. I’d look into MasTec (NYSE:MTZ | MTZ Price Prediction), Vertiv (NYSE:VRT), and nVent Electric (NYSE:NVT) instead.

But why should you steer clear of businesses like CoreWeave?

Their business model works really well if you expect the AI rally to last forever, with hyperscalers pouring increasing amounts of money into them. However, these companies are not built to absorb shocks or a prolonged dry spell. We may be heading into such an environment, and holding CRWV stock is not a smart idea.

You need to avoid companies that are sitting on significant debt and companies that are burning copious amounts of money. CoreWeave plans to spend up to $35 billion in 2026 on building out infrastructure. Keep in mind that their entire market capitalization is at $69 billion. It’s an extreme amount of spending by any measure, and it’ll require them to take even more debt.

CoreWeave has $29 billion in liabilities, and by Q4, interest expense alone was $388 million for a single quarter, up 160% from $149 million in the same period a year prior. The CFO, Nitin Agrawal, confirmed in the Q4 2025 earnings call that Q1 2026 interest expense is expected to hit $510 million to $590 million.

Here are the three stocks you should look into instead:

MasTec (MTZ)

MasTec is an infrastructure construction company that makes wireless and wireline/fiber networks, and it also makes clean energy infrastructure. The company has exposure to power delivery and oil/gas pipeline infrastructure too.

It’s almost purpose-built for the current environment, so it’s not surprising that MTZ stock is up 174% in just the past year.

Fiber, electrical, and energy infrastructure products are increasingly in demand.

MasTec reported Q4 2025 revenue of $3.94 billion (up 16% year-over-year) and full-year 2025 revenue of $14.3 billion (up 16%). It posted strong earnings growth and a record 18-month backlog of $19 billion (up 33% year-over-year)

The company expects ~19% revenue growth to $17 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $1.45 billion (up ~26%), and adjusted EPS of $8.4. It forecasts double-digit growth across all segments.

As long as hyperscalers keep spending, MTZ stock is set to keep surging.

Vertiv (VRT)

Vertiv makes digital infrastructure, and it sells everything from thermal cooling to data center components.

These products are in very high demand, and much like MasTec, the financials are surging. For the full-year 2025, the company posted $10.2 billion in revenue with 26% organic sales growth year-over-year. Adjusted diluted EPS grew 47% to about $4.2.

In Q4 alone, sales grew 23% year-over-year and adjusted operating profit rose 33%, with organic orders growth of 252% in Q4. Backlog is at $15 billion, which is a very high amount for a company with a $90 billion enterprise value.

The stock is up 1,927% in just the past five years alone. You can’t name many large companies that have delivered such explosive gains.

Better yet, these explosive gains aren’t speculative and are mostly the result of financial results being extremely good. You’re paying 41 times forward earnings still, which is not that expensive if Vertiv can keep trouncing estimates.

The 3-year EPS growth rate here is nearly 100% annually if you exclude non-recurring items.

nVent Electric (NVT)

NVT stock has also delivered explosive gains like the two other names above, albeit a little less so due to it already being a big-ish company before AI kicked into high gear.

NVT stock is up over 300% in the past 5 years. That’s nothing to scoff at, and it easily exceeds 90% of medium to large-cap AI companies during the same timeframe.

This company sells electrical connections and protection products that are needed for data centers and all sorts of other high-demand industries today. Infrastructure now accounts for roughly 45% of sales, with data centers alone contributing about $1 billion in 2025 sales, up over 50% year-over-year. Backlog tripled to $2.3 billion.

Despite all of this growth, you are still paying just 27 times earnings for this stock. That’s near the historical median as analysts expect growth to start slowing down on the top line with no acceleration on the bottom line.

But if the AI buildout keeps beating expectations, I see NVT stock delivering far more.