1 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Wall Street Loves That Most Investors Haven't Heard Of
Key Points
Nebius is building AI factories, specialized data centers for some high-profile customers.
Analysts love the company's growth, and a recent acquisition focused on agentic AI.
The stock has promise, but there's steep downside from its current valuation if things don't work out as planned.
- 10 stocks we like better than Nebius Group ›
Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) is among the neocloud companies that have emerged during the artificial intelligence (AI) and data center boom. These companies build specialized data centers for AI workloads and sell their capacity to hyperscalers and AI developers.
The former Yandex N.V. formed Nebius after divesting its Russian business assets in 2024 to focus on AI infrastructure. The stock has soared more than 340% since the beginning of last year, and has become a sudden sensation following financial backing from Nvidia and some massive contracts.
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While many investors still might not know Nebius very well, the stock has won over Wall Street. The median analyst price target is about $164.50, signaling nearly 33% potential upside from its current price. Here is what investors need to know about this red-hot AI stock.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
What role does Nebius play in AI?
Right now, computing resources are arguably the biggest bottleneck facing AI companies. Companies are sprinting to stand up data centers to handle the massive computing requirements involved with running AI models at a global scale.
Nebius builds what some may call AI factories, GPU-powered data centers specifically built for AI cloud computing workloads. AI companies and hyperscalers can expand faster by purchasing capacity from neocloud companies such as Nebius, rather than building all their own data centers. It's a lot like how enterprises have moved to cloud services instead of hosting their own servers.
Investors can evaluate Nebius' AI factories by examining who is buying. Nebius has landed multiyear contracts with Microsoft and Meta Platforms worth up to $46 billion, a vote of confidence from two of the most prominent tech companies.
Why Wall Street loves the stock
Nebius' blockbuster deals also pave the way for explosive revenue growth. Nebius finished 2025 with $529.8 million in total revenue, and analysts estimate that will surge to $3.3 billion this year, then $9.7 billion the following year.
NBIS Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts
Nvidia's $2 billion investment in Nebius also increases the likelihood that it will enjoy earlier access to Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform and future hardware releases.
Lastly, Nebius announced in February that it was acquiring Tavily, an agentic AI search company, for $275 million. The acquisition signals that Nebius is bolstering its AI ecosystem to pursue one of AI's most promising sub-markets. Precedence Research estimates the agentic AI industry could be worth $140 billion to $200 billion within the next decade.
Nebius must successfully fulfill its contracts, which will require crisp execution as it ramps up its data center capacity over the coming years. That said, it's easy to see why Wall Street would like the stock.
There are still serious downside risks
It's not all roses, though. Nebius currently has a market cap of $29.5 billion. Clearly, investors have based that on Nebius' expected growth. That means things could get ugly if something knocks the company off track.
For instance, Nebius could struggle to build data centers on time or on budget. Nebius' customers could buckle under the pressure of enormous AI spending commitments and begin to pull back, drying up the neocloud industry in the process.
The trouble for Nebius' business is that it must spend immense capital before it actually realizes much revenue. Nebius spent just more than $4 billion on property and equipment in 2025 alone. The company will likely continue borrowing and issuing stock as it builds capacity.
It's not yet clear how much debt or share dilution Nebius might incur over the coming years, or how that might impact the stock's performance.
NBIS Total Long Term Debt (Quarterly) data by YCharts
Nebius has enough upside to invest if you can buy the stock on a steep pullback. Otherwise, investors should recognize the serious risks if things don't all go as planned for Nebius during this pivotal ramp-up phase.
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Justin Pope has positions in Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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