I think I am in a nostalgic mood. Why ? Because, lately I am looking over my back and revisiting some of the stocks that I have covered in the past.
Here’s another for the road.
I first covered $NEBIUS(NBIS)$ while covering the then red-hot $CoreWeave, Inc.(CRWV)$.
As part of being “objective”, I looked up CRWV’s competitors, lo and behold, that was how I stumbled upon NBIS.
For those who are interested in the initial posts, click on the titles for the scoop.
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29 Dec 2025 - NBIS: Safer Haven or CRWV 2.0 ? Buy ?
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26 Aug 2025 - CoreWeave the NEW Palantir. Not so fast !
3 months on, here I am taking another stab at NBIS again but this time, it is the “star” of the post, not the support.
Who & What are they ?
Nebius Group (NBIS) and CoreWeave (CRWV) are operating in the same space.
Both of them, provide graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated cloud infrastructure that their customers can use to design, train, and run artificial intelligence (AI)-powered programs.
CRWV is the bigger of the two, with a market capitalization of $40.7 billion versus NBIS Group's $25.2 billion valuation.
However, NBIS has the advantage of growing faster. Based on last 12 months, NBIS stock is up nearly +400%, troucing CRWV's gain of +109% in the same period.
In addition, on 15 Mar 2026, NBIS has announced a 5-year AI infrastructure deal with $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$, that is worth up to $27 billion. (see below)
META’s deal calls on NBIS to provide $12 billion of dedicated capacity, with META buying another $15 billion of additional capacity if it isn't sold elsewhere.
This is a deal that significantly increased NBIS' backlog and provides it with resources to continue its expansion.
The stock jumped +15% on 16 Mar 2026, following the announcement of the META deal.(see below)
Is NBIS a better stock to invest than CRWV now? Let’s find out !
All about CoreWeave
CRWV is based in Livingston, New Jersey, and specializes in providing turnkey solutions to hyperscalers seeking to add computing capacity.
This is a growing demand as more companies move their operations to cloud environments and seek to use cloud providers to access high-powered GPUs.
The company, that went public on 28 Mar 2025 and is seeing rapid growth in revenue, with sales of $1.57 billion in Q4 2025, up +110% from a year ago.
Unfortunately, with rapid growth comes rapid losses, as CRWV looks to expand its footprint to provide additional computing capacity.
For Q4 2025, the company posted an adjusted net loss of -$284 million, that is much worse than a year ago when it lost -$36 million.
The company ended 2025 with 43 data centers and 850 megawatts of connected power, and 3.1 gigawatts of contracted power.
The truth is CRWV’s aggressive spending is taking a toll.
While CRWV is consistently growing its revenue, massive capital expenditures in Q4 2025 widened its net loss dramatically. (see below)
CRWV is expecting this year (2026) to be a turning point.
Armed with deals with OpenAI and META, that are collectively valued at more than $46 billion, (see below)
CRWV is expected to generate between $12 billion and $13 billion in revenue in 2026, up from $5.1 billion in 2025.
As CEO Michael Intrator has said - "We remain in the early stages of the most transformative infrastructure build-out in history".
All About Nebius.
Nebius is based in the Netherlands. It used to have deep ties to Russia, as the company was previously known as Yandex and operated a Russian internet company.
Following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Russian companies were hit with sanctions and $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ suspended trading of Yandex stock.
The company divested itself of its Russian assets, rebranded as Nebius, and became a cloud infrastructure company and that has been a winning formula.
In FY 2025, NBIS shares jumped a whooping +202% in 2025 and are up another +18% in 2026, so far.
Since the stock resumed trading on 21 Oct 2024, it is up more than +400%.
In addition to its META deal, NBIS signed a contract with $Microsoft(MSFT)$ in September 2025. Valued at up to $19.4 billion, the contract requires NBIS to provide MSFT with high-performance computing power from data center located in New Jersey. (see below)
These 2 deals are helping NBIS to scale rapidly.
NBIS had just 170 megawatts of connected data center capacity at the end of 2025, with plans to end 2026 with between 800 MW and 1 gigawatt of connected capacity.
NBIS also in the red, as it's running up against the same pressures as CRWV in buying GPUs and outfitting its full-stack AI cloud data centers.
In Q4 2025 revenue was $227.7 million, up +547% YoY from a year ago, with the company posting a net loss of $173 million.
NBIS disclosed that it spent just over $2 billion in Q4 2025 alone on capital expenditures, and $4.06 billion for the full year (FY 2026). (see below)
For apple-to-apple comparison, I have researched and tabulated in similar layout, NBIS’s past quarterly earnings.
This makes it easy to match against CRWV’s earnings.
My Analysis.
I have taken a further step to analyze both companies’ quarterly earnings.
Below is what I have found.
In the AI-infrastructure high-stakes arms race, CRWV and NBIS have emerged as the primary "neocloud" challengers to traditional hyperscalers.
While both companies are operating in a "hypergrowth-at-all-costs" phase, characterized by massive capital expenditures and net losses, their financial trajectories and scale differ quite alot.
The Heavyweight AI Factory.
CRWV has transitioned from its origins as a crypto-miner into the world's largest specialized AI cloud provider.
Its 2025 performance reflects a company scaling with unprecedented velocity.
Financial Performance Analysis
Revenue Hypergrowth:
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CRWV ended FY 2025 with $5.13 billion in total annual revenue, that’s a whooping+168% gain, from FY 2024’s $1.92 billion.
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By Q4 2025, quarterly revenue reached $1.57 billion, nearly double the $747 million reported one year ago.
Operating Margins:
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GAAP net losses reached $1.17 billion for FY 2025.
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Company’s adjusted EBITDA hit $3.1 billion, representing a robust 60% margin.
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This indicates that the core business is highly profitable on a per-unit basis and it is being weighed down by massive interest expenses and depreciation.
Debt Load:
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Like existing tech giants, to fuel expansion, CRWV’s long-term debt ballooned to $21 billion by the end of 2025.
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In Q4 2025 alone, interest expenses reached $388 million, consuming nearly 25% of top-line revenue.
Backlog & Capacity
Backlog:
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As of 31 Dec 2025, CRWV boasts a monstrous revenue backlog of $66.8 billion.
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This provides roughly 5 - 6 years of revenue visibility based on current run rates.
Infrastructure:
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CRWV has added 260 MW of power in 2025, ending with 850 MW active and over 3.1 GW contracted.
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It aims to hit 1.7 GW active by the end 2026.
The Agile European Contender
NBIS, the Amsterdam-based AI cloud company, is decidedly smaller than CRWV.
Having said that, it is growing at a faster percentage clip from a lower base.
Financial Performance Analysis
Revenue Acceleration:
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NBIS reported $529.8 million in FY 2025 revenue, this is up +479% YoY.
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Q4 2025 revenue hit $227.7 million, a massive jump from Q4 2024’s $37.9 million.
Unit Economics:
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Unlike CRWV that is still in the “red”, NBIS turned the corner in Q4 2025.
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It’s adjusted EBITDA, posted a $15 million profit, after a year of losses.
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For 2026, its guidance projects a dramatic margin expansion to 40% adjusted EBITDA.
Capex Intensity:
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NBIS is in its most aggressive spending phase.
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In Q4 2025, it spent $2.056 billion on CapEx, that is nearly 9x its quarterly revenue, in order to secure $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ Blackwell GPUs and data center space.
Backlog & Capacity
Backlog:
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NBIS’s "Committed contract value" stands at approximately $22 billion, primarily anchored by a $17.4 billion 5-year deal with MSFT and a $3 billion deal with META.
Infrastructure:.
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It exited 2025 with 170 MW active and targets 800 MW to 1 GW in 2026.
Nebius vs CoreWeave?
Both are neocloud companies that provide AI computing capacity. In that way, they're very similar.
NBIS has all the ingredients to follow CRWV's path, but CRWV is still leading the way in both execution and scale.
Consensus on the ground is Investors are betting that it can match or even exceed CRWV at some point, but the company is not there yet.
Stock Performance comparison.
Overview.
There is a massive divergence in performance between the two AI infrastructure challengers over the past year.
While both stocks initially moved in tandem during Q2 2025, their paths separated dramatically starting in July 2025.
The Outperformer.
NBIS has delivered an extraordinary run, ending the 12-month period with a +436% gain. (see below)
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The stock broke away from CRWV in July 2025 and entered a "parabolic" phase in September 2025, coinciding with the announcement of major hyperscaler contracts. (see below)
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NBIS experienced significant volatility, peaking near the 550% mark in late October 2024 before a sharp correction and subsequent recovery.
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Despite several -20% to –30% pullbacks throughout late 2025 and early 2026, the stock consistently maintained a higher baseline, ending the period near its local highs.
The Lagging Giant
In contrast, CoreWeave has underperformed significantly relative to its peer, finishing the year with a +72% gain. (see above)
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CRWV actually led the pairing in May & June 2025, reaching a peak of nearly 300% in late June.
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Following its June 2025 peak, the stock entered a sustained downtrend.
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While it attempted a brief recovery in October 2025, it failed to break previous resistance.
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Since the start of 2026, CRWV has largely traded sideways to down, hovering between the 50% and 100% gain threshold.
Neoclouds’ Mastermind.
Amidst encouraging growth from both CRWV and NBIS, did you know that before most investors had even heard of 'neoclouds', $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ was already quietly tugging the strings, seeding, backing, and embedding itself into the very companies that would become the backbone of the AI infrastructure boom ?
The Earlier, Deeper Bet
NVDA's relationship with CRWV began in April 2023 with an initial $100 million investment, when the latter was valued at around $2 billion.
Fast forward to January 2026, and NVDA doubled down significantly, investing an additional $2 billion in CRWV Class A shares at $87.20 /share, with plans to jointly build AI data centers and integrate NVDA's next-gen chip architectures, including Rubin, BlueField, and Vera CPUs.
NVDA's total investment in CRWV stood at approximately $3.3 billion, making it NVDA's largest portfolio holding.
The payoff ? NVDA also agreed to purchase more than $6 billion in services from CRWV through 2032, effectively creating a powerful, circular ecosystem of chip supply and cloud demand.
The Recent Maneuver.
NVDA's first foray into NBIS came in December 2024, as part of a $700 million private placement where NVDA acquired approximately 0.5% of the company.
In March 2026, NVDA upped the ante, investing $2 billion for about 8.3% stake at $94.94 /share, with NBIS committing to deploy more than 5 GW of NVDA-powered data center capacity by end of 2030.
NBIS stock jumped about +16% on the announcement, validating the market's enthusiasm for the partnership.
Outro.
As the rivalry between these two NVDA-backed neoclouds intensifies, all eyes now turn to earnings season.
CRWV is set to report its Q1 2026 results on 13 May 2026, 5 days before NBIS takes the stage on 18 May 2026; two dates that could well determine which of Huang's prized bets is pulling further ahead in the race to dominate AI infrastructure.
Which of Huang’s strategic investment would you consider ? I know mine - small is beautiful !
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