Two specialized AI cloud infrastructure companies are drawing investor attention as the race to dominate GPU computing heats up in 2026.
Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) and CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) both provide specialized cloud infrastructure for training and running artificial intelligence models.
CoreWeave scaled rapidly through leased infrastructure, large customer commitments, and extensive debt financing, making it the larger of the two platforms.
Nebius is smaller but designs and develops its own cloud software, storage, networking, and workload-management tools, giving it a distinct technical profile.
CoreWeave generated revenue close to $2.1 billion in the first quarter ending March 31, 2026, up 112% year over year, and had more than 1 gigawatt of power capacity operating across its data centers.
CoreWeave ended the first quarter with $99.4 billion of revenue backlog, signaling strong forward visibility, though much depends on delivering promised computing capacity to customers.
Nebius posted first-quarter revenue of $399 million, representing a 684% year-over-year surge, and has secured access to more than 4 gigawatts of power for its data center expansion.
Nebius’ commercial pipeline generation was about 3.5 times the previous quarter’s level, reflecting accelerating demand for its AI infrastructure services.
Microsoft has agreed to pay Nebius up to $17.4 billion through 2031, subject to Nebius installing the promised GPU systems and keeping that computing capacity available, with an option for Microsoft to purchase another $2 billion in services.
Meta Platforms has agreed to purchase $12 billion of dedicated capacity from Nebius over the next five years, with a requirement to purchase up to $15 billion of additional capacity if Nebius cannot sell specified capacity to other customers.
These major contracts significantly reduce the risk that Nebius will build expensive data centers without sufficient customer demand to justify the investment.
CoreWeave’s 56% adjusted EBITDA margin looks impressive, but its adjusted operating margin was only 1% after accounting for depreciation and amortization charges.
CoreWeave’s debt-funded expansion resulted in $536 million of net interest expense, contributing to a $740 million net loss in the quarter.
CoreWeave ended the first quarter of 2026 with $25.1 billion in debt and $10.1 billion in operating lease liabilities, leaving relatively little revenue available to benefit shareholders after obligations are met.
Nebius invested about $2.47 billion in property, equipment, and intangible assets during the first quarter, while operating cash flow reached $2.3 billion, though that figure includes a $3.2 billion increase in deferred revenue.
CoreWeave is the stronger operating business today, but Nebius’ lighter financial burden and focus on owned data centers could enable it to deliver better long-term shareholder returns.
