On August 12, 2026, Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ:NBIS)'s cloud business revenue jumped 514% year over year in the second quarter, sending shares up more than 20%. It pushed total quarterly revenue to $582.3 million, ahead of the roughly $572.75 million analysts expected.
The results came a day after rival CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) raised its own annual forecasts.
Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ:NBIS) and CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) are both so-called neocloud companies that lease out AI computing capacity rather than building their own AI products. So whose growth numbers actually show a more durable business, the smaller company posting the bigger percentage gain, or the larger one with a much bigger backlog?
The company's CEO Arkady Volozh said, "Everything we set out to do this quarter, we did," pointing to four AI cloud deals signed during the quarter that averaged more than $1 billion each, as total contract value nearly quadrupled. Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ:NBIS) raised its contracted power target for 2026 to 5 gigawatts from more than 4 gigawatts previously. The firm said it expects more than $9 billion in customer prepayments this year on top of $40 billion in total customer commitments. The company also secured $775 million in asset-backed financing in July 2026, adding a funding cushion beyond the roughly $5.7 billion it spent on chips and data centers during the quarter.
Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said demand for AI cloud capacity keeps climbing. But he cautioned that "the bigger question is how diversified and durable that demand proves to be" beyond the AI industry itself.
CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV)'s revenue climbed 112% year over year. Its backlog reached $104.2 billion, roughly 180 times larger than Nebius's total revenue for the quarter, a scale advantage Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ:NBIS) has not yet approached. CEO Michael Intrator said the numbers reported show what's already under construction today and pushed back on concerns that regulatory scrutiny would affect near-term results.
CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) posted a loss per share of $1.14, though that beat the $1.41 loss analysts expected. Hedge fund ownership data disclosed in prior filings shows funds including Magnetar, Nvidia itself, and Jane Street holding significant stakes, a concentration that cuts both ways if sentiment turns.
Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ:NBIS) was held by 60 hedge funds as of Q1 2026, up from 54. CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) was held by 63 hedge funds, up from 58.
Nvidia, which both companies rely on for chips, was held by 275 hedge funds over the same period.
Nebius wins on growth rate, CoreWeave wins on scale, and neither number alone settles which business model holds up better once AI spending eventually normalizes.
Overall, hedge funds favor CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) over Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ:NBIS).
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
