Nebius adds to the excitement around neocloud stocks with upbeat earnings of its own

By Emily Bary

Investors are reacting positively to earnings results and demand signals from neocloud companies CoreWeave and Nebius

Nebius cited exponential growth in demand.

Momentum is building for neocloud companies, and Nebius Group just became the latest to show signs of robust customer demand.

The neocloud company, which rents out computing capacity, posted second-quarter revenue on Wednesday morning that was 514% above levels from a year before. Revenue amounted to $575 million, above the $570 million that analysts tracked by FactSet had been projecting.

"Demand for AI capacity continues to grow exponentially, and we are converting that demand into contracted, profitable growth," CEO Arkady Volozh said in a shareholder letter.

Shares of Nebius (NBIS) shot up 34% on Wednesday.

Volozh noted that the company "closed four landmark deals" within its artificial-intelligence cloud business during the quarter, and they had an average total contract value upwards of $1 billion each.

Overall, 70% of Nebius deals from the second quarter involved prepayments from customers, which Volozh billed as a sign of improved economics and a new "market standard." Nebius expects to receive more than $9 billion worth of customer prepayments this year and is sticking with its broader 2026 outlook.

The company has also instituted new pricing moves early in the current quarter, including short-term capacity agreements, and these "are showing promise," according to Volozh's letter.

Furthermore, the company has experimented with a new "asset-light" option that allows customers to deploy Nebius' AI cloud offerings within their own data centers.

"This complements our owned and colocated portfolio while reducing the capital burden of adding capacity for customers," Volozh noted.

The company topped expectations on a measure of profitability in the latest quarter, delivering adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $236 million, whereas analysts tracked by FactSet had been looking for $169 million.

That said, Nebius was unprofitable on a GAAP basis, turning in a $190 million net loss from continuing operations.

Nebius's results follow a blowout report from fellow neocloud company CoreWeave (CRWV), which is receiving a positive reception as well. Shares of CoreWeave gained 19% on Wednesday.

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-Emily Bary

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08-12-26 1834ET