CoreWeave shares fell in after-hours trading on Wednesday as the artificial intelligence data centre operator issued quarterly profit guidance that missed Wall Street forecasts.

The US group, which leases computing capacity to tech companies that are building AI models, said operating income in the second quarter would be between $140mn and $170mn, below analyst estimates of $192mn. Its shares were down 5.5 per cent after-hours.

Chief executive Michael Intrator said during a call with analysts that demand for its data centres was accelerating. Chief financial officer Nitin Agrawal attributed the lower profit guidance to bringing forward some spending to meet demand. Agrawal said CoreWeave’s capital expenditure would be between $20bn and $23bn this year.