Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS Quick QuoteNBIS - Free Report) and CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV Quick QuoteCRWV - Free Report) are two AI cloud companies benefiting from the rising demand for AI infrastructure. Both are expanding their computing capacity and building out infrastructure to support the growing needs of AI customers.

Nebius is scaling its AI infrastructure through its own and partner-operated facilities, while CoreWeave is expanding its purpose-built AI cloud platform and capacity. With both companies pursuing rapid growth in the AI cloud market, their business models, expansion strategies and financial performance provide key areas of comparison.

Let’s evaluate their fundamentals, growth prospects, market challenges and valuations to determine which one presents a stronger investment opportunity.

The Case for NBIS Stock

Nebius continues to see strong demand for its AI cloud infrastructure, with the company closing four landmark deals during the quarter with an average value of more than $1 billion each. These agreements carry yields of $20 million to $25 million per megawatt, while upfront payments cover 50-60% of the associated capital expenditures. Nebius also said it could sell its entire 2027 capacity under similar terms but is retaining some capacity for shorter-duration opportunities that can command significantly higher pricing. Short-term deals of up to six months are being negotiated at $40 million to $50 million per megawatt, with some above that range, supporting the company’s focus on optimizing the value of its capacity.

Nebius also partnered with Palantir to provide AI compute and inference infrastructure to commercial customers, strengthening its position in sovereign AI and expanding access to enterprises.

The company’s revenue growth is being supported by rapidly expanding capacity, higher utilization and the contribution of newer businesses. Group revenues increased 454% year over year to $582 million in the second quarter, while Nebius AI revenues rose 514% to $575 million and represented 98% of group revenues. Annualized run-rate revenues reached $3 billion, up 598% year over year, driven by capacity added in the first quarter, improved infrastructure efficiency, the asset-light business model, Token Factory and recent acquisitions. Group adjusted EBITDA increased to $236 million from a $21 million loss a year earlier, with the adjusted EBITDA margin expanding to 41% from 32% in the first quarter. Management expects further margin improvement as its own data-center capacity comes online, particularly from the second half of 2027.

Nebius is expanding its capacity pipeline while introducing more capital-efficient ways to scale. The company raised its year-end contracted power target to 5 gigawatts and expects to build more than 1 gigawatt of new capacity annually in 2027. Its new asset-light partnership model allows partners to finance, build and operate facilities while Nebius provides its full-stack platform and demand, creating high-margin revenues with limited balance-sheet capital requirements. The company is also using capacity auctions and shorter-term contracts to capture higher pricing, while customer prepayments are expected to provide more than $9 billion of upfront funding in 2026.

Nebius reaffirmed its 2026 guidance for $7-$9 billion of annualized run-rate revenues, $3-$3.4 billion of group revenues, an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 40% and $20-$25 billion of capital expenditures.

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However, Nebius expects quarterly adjusted EBITDA margins to fluctuate during 2026 as it invests ahead of capacity deployment. Management indicated that margins are likely to decline in the second quarter because capacity additions are weighted toward the back half of the year, with investments recognized before the related revenue contribution. Margins are expected to return to first-quarter levels in the third quarter and improve further in the fourth quarter as additional capacity comes online.

Nebius has also increased its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $20-$25 billion from the previous range of $16-$20 billion. The higher spending is intended to support 2027 capacity backed by customer commitments. To fund this expansion, the company expects to rely on additional financing through asset-backed structures, corporate debt, customer prepayments and other funding alternatives while continuing to evaluate the most appropriate sources of capital and maintain a disciplined capital structure.

The Case for CRWV Stock

CoreWeave continues to benefit from strong and broadening demand for AI infrastructure across industries, geographies and workloads. The company’s second-quarter revenues reached a record $2.6 billion, up 112% year over year and 24% sequentially, while revenue backlog increased 246% year over year to $104.2 billion. The backlog excludes more than $25 billion of net new customer commitments added in the early weeks of the third quarter. CoreWeave also stated that its near-term capacity remains effectively sold out, while pricing and margins for Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems are reaching new highs. New contracts signed in the second quarter are expected to carry contribution margins 5-10 percentage points above those of contracts added in recent quarters.

CoreWeave has been expanding its capabilities for next-generation AI workloads by deploying multi-rack NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 clusters on CoreWeave Cloud. The company also introduced cross-region write acceleration and a lower-cost Archive tier for its AI Object Storage platform to help customers scale compute-intensive agentic AI workloads while keeping critical data accessible to GPUs. CoreWeave is also targeting the emerging physical AI market with its new Physical AI Field Engineering offering for automotive, aerospace, robotics and engineering teams.

The company is expanding beyond traditional GPU infrastructure through higher-margin AI development services, managed inference, storage, CPU, networking and software. Managed inference booked ARR increased from $1 million to more than $100 million within a few months of launch, with the company expecting at least $250 million of managed inference ARR by the end of 2026. Its storage, CPU, networking and software businesses had already exceeded $400 million in ARR by the second quarter. CoreWeave also introduced seven new AI platform capabilities and continues to expand its platform as customers move AI workloads from experimentation into production.

Scale is beginning to translate into stronger operating leverage, with management expecting sequential margin expansion through the rest of 2026. Second-quarter adjusted EBITDA reached $1.5 billion, up from $753 million a year earlier, with a 59% adjusted EBITDA margin. Adjusted operating income rose to $128 million from $21 million in the first quarter, with the 5% adjusted operating margin coming in above the high end of guidance. CoreWeave raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $12.4-$13.2 billion and adjusted operating income guidance to $960 million-$1.15 billion. It also raised its year-end active-power expectation to more than 1.85 gigawatts and expects 2026 annualized run-rate revenues of $18.5-$19.5 billion.

However, CoreWeave’s rapid expansion continues to require very high capital spending and increased financing. The company’s second-quarter capital expenditure totaled $9.4 billion, slightly above the high end of its guided range, while construction in progress increased to $11.9 billion. The company expects full-year 2026 capital expenditure of $35-$39 billion, reflecting the additional capacity it plans to deliver to customers. Interest expense also rose to $640 million in the second quarter from $267 million a year earlier, driven by higher debt used to finance infrastructure expansion and contracted customer commitments. The company reported a second -quarter net loss of $626 million compared with a $290 million loss a year earlier.

The pace of capacity expansion remains dependent on securing power, hardware and other critical supply-chain inputs while CoreWeave manages a rapidly growing infrastructure footprint. The company ended the second quarter with 1.5 gigawatts of active power and 3.7 gigawatts of contracted power, later increasing contracted power to 4.2 gigawatts. It expects to spend $11.5-$13.5 billion on capital expenditure in the third quarter, while interest expense is projected at $860-$940 million, reflecting the growth in debt required to finance deployments. CoreWeave also noted that the global supply chain remains complex and requires ongoing management of land, power, GPUs, networking and memory as AI infrastructure demand expands.

Share Performance for NBIS & CRWV

In the past year, NBIS shares have rallied 109.7%, while CRWV shares have plunged 38.9%.

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Valuation for NBIS & CRWV

After its rapid rise, both Nebius and CoreWeave trade at a premium valuation, as suggested by the Value Score of C. In terms of Price/Book, NBIS shares are trading at 5.47X, lower than CRWV’s 7.25X.

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How Do Zacks Estimates Compare for NBIS & CRWV?

Analysts have significantly revised their earnings estimates upward for NBIS’ bottom line for the current year.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRWV’s earnings for the current year has been sharply revised downward over the past 60 days.

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NBIS or CRWV: Which Stock Has More Upside?

Both NBIS and CRWV currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

For investors seeking an AI cloud company with rapid growth and a capital-efficient expansion strategy, Nebius offers a compelling opportunity, supported by strong demand, rising margins and its asset-light model.

CoreWeave offers greater scale, a large backlog and expanding operating leverage, but its aggressive infrastructure expansion also requires significantly higher capital spending and debt financing.

Both Nebius and CoreWeave are positioned to benefit from strong AI infrastructure demand, but Nebius’ faster growth, flexible business model and margin expansion potential make NBIS the more compelling pick.