CoreWeave vs. Nebius Group: Which Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cloud Stock Has More Upside?
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CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) and Nebius(NASDAQ: NBIS) are two of the most popular picks in the artificial intelligence (AI) cloud infrastructure space. So far, they’ve been strong stock picks in 2026, with CoreWeave rising about 30% and Nebius nearly tripling, at a 196% gain. While Nebius has clearly been the better performer so far this year, that may not be the case moving forward.
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Both companies are dependent on more AI spending
CoreWeave and Nebius are both neocloud providers, offering cloud computing services specifically tailored for AI workloads. While the nuts and bolts behind their products are different, they each serve hyperscalers by offering them increased computing capacity. Two of their biggest clients are Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), which each have massive in-house computing capacity of their own.
This may seem odd for these two to rent computing capacity from neoclouds when they have so much, but the reality is that they don’t have enough to meet demand. Their deals also allow Meta and Microsoft to scale their usage up or down depending on demand, giving them some flexibility, but that also increases the risk Nebius and CoreWeave take on.
Both of these stocks cratered after Meta Platforms indicated it could be launching a cloud computing division, something it previously said it would only consider doing if it had excess computing capacity. That might suggest that it won’t need to use the neoclouds’ services for much longer. However, Meta eased those fears during its Q2 conference call when CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated: “We’re getting a lot of offers for compute at a significant premium over what we paid for it.”
That assured Nebius and CoreWeave investors that one of their largest clients wasn’t going to end the relationship, and ignited a rally in August. However, even if Meta does cut ties, it probably wouldn’t be difficult for these two to find buyers for the computing power that Meta leaves behind.
Still, if demand for AI computing capacity does not continue to rise, the business models of Nebius and CoreWeave could be in jeopardy. Each of them is engaging in a growth-at-all-costs strategy, and as long as there is more growth in the AI sector, they will be OK. But one of them clearly looks like it has more upside right now.
