Nebius Stock Jumped 15% on Its Meta Deal. Is This the Next CoreWeave -- or Something Better?

Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) and CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) are operating in the same space. They both provide graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated cloud infrastructure that their customers can use to design, train, and run artificial intelligence (AI)-powered programs. CoreWeave is the bigger of the two, with a market capitalization of $40.7 billion versus Nebius Group's $25.2 billion valuation.

But Nebius has the advantage of growing faster. Nebius stock is up nearly 400% in the last 12 months, soundly beating CoreWeave's gain of 109% in the same period.

In addition, Nebius is fresh off a five-year AI infrastructure deal with Meta Platforms worth up to $27 billion. The Meta deal calls on Nebius to provide $12 billion of dedicated capacity, with Meta buying another $15 billion of additional capacity if it isn't sold elsewhere -- a deal that significantly increased Nebius' backlog and provides it with resources to continue its expansion.

Nebius stock jumped 15% on March 15, following the announcement of the Meta deal. Is it a better stock to buy than CoreWeave now?

Image source: Getty Images.

About CoreWeave stock

CoreWeave is based in Livingston, New Jersey, and specializes in providing turnkey solutions to hyperscalers seeking to add computing capacity. This demand is growing as more companies move their operations to cloud environments and seek to use cloud providers to access high-powered GPUs.

The company, which went public just a year ago, is seeing rapid growth in revenue, with sales of $1.57 billion in the fourth quarter, up 110% from a year ago. But with that rapid growth comes rapid losses, as CoreWeave looks to expand its footprint to provide additional computing capacity. The company posted an adjusted net loss of $284 million, 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, plus 3.1 gigawatts of contracted power.

But its aggressive spending takes a toll. While CoreWeave is consistently growing its revenue, massive capital expenditures in Q4 2025 widened its net loss dramatically.

Data source: CoreWeave.

However, this year is expected to be a turning point. Armed with deals with OpenAI and Meta that are collectively valued at more than $46 billion, CoreWeave expects to generate between $12 billion and $13 billion in revenue in 2026, up from $5.1 billion in 2025.

"We remain in the early stages of the most transformative infrastructure build-out in history," CEO Michael Intrator said.

About Nebius stock

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. But Russian companies were hit with sanctions following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and Nasdaq suspended trading of Yandex stock. The company divested itself of its Russian assets, rebranded as Nebius, and became a cloud infrastructure company.

That's been a winning formula. Nebius shares jumped 202% in 2025 and are up another 18% this year. Since the stock resumed trading on the Nasdaq in 2024, Nebius stock is up more than 400%.

In addition to its Meta deal, Nebius has a deal valued at as much as $19.4 billion to provide Microsoft with computing power from a New Jersey data center. These deals are helping Nebius expand rapidly. The company had just 170 megawatts of connected data center capacity at the end of 2025, but plans to end 2026 with between 800 MW and 1 gigawatt of connected capacity.

But the company is also in the red, as it's running up against the same pressures as CoreWeave in buying GPUs and outfitting its full-stack AI cloud data centers. Revenue in Q4 was $227.7 million, up 547% from a year ago, but the company posted a net loss of $173 million. Nebius disclosed that it spent just over $2 billion in Q4 alone on capital expenditures, and $4.06 billion for the full year.

How does Nebius stack up against CoreWeave?

Both are neocloud companies that provide AI computing capacity. In that way, they're very similar. Nebius has all the ingredients to follow CoreWeave's path, but CoreWeave is still leading the way in both execution and scale. Investors are betting that it can match or even exceed CoreWeave at some point, but the company's not there yet.

Patrick Sanders has positions in Nebius Group. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.