--- title: "CoreWeave has named the data layer it wants AI labs to build on" description: "CoreWeave's new partner network names only two data-services vendors, ClickHouse and LanceDB. For the cloud that says most leading foundation model providers train on its platform, that shortlist is a distribution decision, and it hands a small private startup the industry's sharpest channel." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Infrastructure" published: 2026-10-13T21:27:02.779Z modified: 2026-10-13T21:27:02.779Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/coreweave-has-named-the-data-layer-it-wants-ai-labs-to-build-on language: en keywords: "CoreWeave, Data Infrastructure, Partnerships, AI Training, Cloud Computing" --- # CoreWeave has named the data layer it wants AI labs to build on > CoreWeave's new partner network names only two data-services vendors, ClickHouse and LanceDB. For the cloud that says most leading foundation model providers train on its platform, that shortlist is a distribution decision, and it hands a small private startup the industry's sharpest channel. On September 30, [CoreWeave](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/coreweave) [used its Fully Connected conference to launch the CoreWeave Partner Network](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/coreweave-partner-network-accelerates-path-130000708.html): vendors whose integrations it has tested under production load on its cloud [1]. It spans the whole stack, anchored by [VAST Data in storage](https://theinference.org/article/vast-data-s-biggest-customer-is-now-building-vast-s-layer), [CrowdStrike](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/crowdstrike) in security and ClickHouse, a columnar-database maker, in data services [1]. In that last category the release names only one other vendor, [LanceDB](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/lancedb) [1]. That shortlist is the news. CoreWeave says nine of the ten leading foundation model providers train on its platform [1]. It has now put a validation mark on the data layer it expects them to run. ## Curation is a distribution decision CoreWeave is explicit that the list is earned: [partners join only when customers are already running them or asking for them](https://www.coreweave.com/coreweave-partner-network) [2]. The pitch is scale without rebuilding, keeping the tools a team already has [2]. Chief marketing officer Jean English frames the strategy the same way, "so much beyond the GPU," a full-stack cloud completed by partners [3]. For a company that listed on Nasdaq in March 2025 [1], this is a retention play layered onto a business that keeps compounding. *Chart: **CoreWeave's quarterly revenue has more than doubled year over year since listing** Line chart of CoreWeave quarterly revenue rising from $584 million in Q3 2024 to $2.575 billion in Q2 2026.* *Quarterly revenue in US dollars, from CoreWeave's SEC filings. The Partner Network launched on September 30, 2026, in the quarter after the last shown. [4]* ## The bottleneck moved to the curate step The same day, CoreWeave announced Forge, a development layer that runs the AI loop: run, observe, curate, improve, evaluate, repeat [5]. Compute is the abundant part of that loop. What limits teams now is moving multimodal data, meaning text, images, video and audio handled together [6], into training fast, and giving agents memory that survives a session. Lance, the open-source format under LanceDB, targets exactly that, and the company [publishes benchmarks against Parquet, Delta Lake and Iceberg](https://www.lancedb.com/blog), the table formats data teams already store analytics and training data in [7]. The traction is documented rather than promised: ByteDance's cloud unit Volcano Engine rebuilt its AI stack on Lance and cut a seven-day pipeline to one day, and the agent framework CrewAI now ships LanceDB memory by default across 12 million monthly downloads [7]. ## Who gets paid CoreWeave gets stickier labs. LanceDB, led by chief executive Chang She, gets the channel: a validated seat in front of the labs already training there, built on a [$30 million Series A](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lancedb-raises-30-million-multimodal-100430544.html) led by Theory Ventures, with CRV, Y Combinator and [Runway](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/runway) [6]. [Databricks](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/databricks) Ventures also invested [6], and its parent company, Databricks, develops Delta Lake [8], one of the formats Lance is fighting. The losers show up as absences: the release names no rival vector database and no Parquet, Delta or Iceberg vendor in data services [1]. What no source shows yet is conversion, whether labs on CoreWeave rebuild on Lance the way Volcano Engine did. That is the test to watch. The payoff is shifting to moving production data back into training fast, and that job currently has a shortlist of two. ## Takeaway CoreWeave's Partner Network shortlist puts LanceDB in front of the labs that train on its cloud, and the payoff in AI now sits with whoever moves production data back into training fastest. ## Sources 1. [Business Wire via Yahoo Finance, "CoreWeave Partner Network Accelerates the Path to AI Innovation", 30 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/coreweave-partner-network-accelerates-path-130000708.html) 2. [CoreWeave, "CoreWeave Partner Network", accessed 13 October 2026](https://www.coreweave.com/coreweave-partner-network) 3. [SiliconANGLE, "CoreWeave makes the case for an open, full-stack AI cloud", 8 October 2026](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/08/coreweave-makes-case-open-full-stack-ai-cloud-fullyconnected/) 4. [CoreWeave, quarterly revenue from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001769628) 5. [AIwire (HPCwire), "CoreWeave Forge Launches, Turning the AI Loop Production Run Into a Better Model and Agent", 30 September 2026](https://www.hpcwire.com/aiwire/2026/09/30/coreweave-forge-launches-turning-the-ai-loop-production-run-into-a-better-model-and-agent/) 6. [Anna Tong, Reuters via Yahoo Finance, "LanceDB raises $30 million for multimodal AI data infrastructure", 24 June 2025](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lancedb-raises-30-million-multimodal-100430544.html) 7. [LanceDB, blog index (Volcano Engine, CrewAI and Lance/Delta/Iceberg benchmark posts), accessed 13 October 2026](https://www.lancedb.com/blog) 8. [Wikipedia, "Databricks", accessed 13 October 2026](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Databricks) --- CoreWeave has named the data layer it wants AI labs to build on — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/coreweave-has-named-the-data-layer-it-wants-ai-labs-to-build-on