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A pool hustler deals graphics cards labeled GPU across a green pool table; each dealt card lifts into the air and puffs into a fluffy white cloud.
ZIMBO'S TAKE“THE GPU CARD SHARK”

Mike Intrator

POOL-TABLE GPU → COREWEAVE

UPDATED Oct 5, 2026

THE DEAL

Intrator ran a natural-gas hedge fund, bought one GPU, put it on a pool table in lower Manhattan, and mined an Ethereum block.

SOURCES: CoreWeaveCoreWeaveCoreWeaveCoreWeaveCoreWeave

AT A GLANCE

EDUCATION
Binghamton University · Political science · BACoreWeave
EDUCATION
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs · MPACoreWeave

THE ARCHIVE

History · cartoons · headlines
THE TIMELINE6 sourced events

ONE GPU ON A POOL TABLE BECAME COREWEAVE

Intrator ran a natural-gas hedge fund, bought one GPU, put it on a pool table in lower Manhattan, and mined an Ethereum block. The hobby became CoreWeave — a specialized GPU cloud that raised billions and went public in 2025.

  1. 2013

    THE AI-CLOUD CEO STARTS WITH A NATURAL-GAS HEDGE FUND

    Before CoreWeave, Intrator co-founded Hudson Ridge Asset Management, a natural-gas-focused hedge fund, and served as its chief executive.

    SOURCES: CoreWeavefirst-party

  2. 2016

    ONE GPU. ONE POOL TABLE. ONE ETHEREUM BLOCK.

    Intrator says the future CoreWeave founders bought their first GPU in 2016, put it on a pool table in lower Manhattan, and mined their first Ethereum block.

    SOURCES: CoreWeavefirst-party

  3. 2017

    THE CRYPTO HOBBY BECOMES COREWEAVE

    CoreWeave was founded in 2017 as the pool-table experiment grew into a GPU business and a New Jersey data-center footprint.

    SOURCES: CoreWeavefirst-partyCoreWeavefirst-party

  4. Nov 2021

    THE GPU SHOP RAISES $50 MILLION FOR THE CLOUD

    CoreWeave raised $50 million from Magnetar to scale its specialized GPU cloud after years of buying hardware through the crypto boom and crypto winter.

    SOURCES: CoreWeavefirst-party

  5. May 1, 2024

    AI DEMAND TURNS INTO A $1.1 BILLION EQUITY ROUND

    CoreWeave raised $1.1 billion in Series C equity financing to expand the specialized cloud infrastructure serving rapidly growing AI workloads.

    SOURCES: CoreWeavefirst-party

  6. Mar 27, 2025

    THE CRYPTO-MINING DESCENDANT GOES PUBLIC AS AN AI CLOUD

    CoreWeave priced its initial public offering at $40 a share, putting the former crypto-compute operation onto Nasdaq as a purpose-built AI infrastructure company.

    SOURCES: CoreWeavefirst-party