Key Points
CoreWeave has greater scale and stronger contracted revenue visibility.
Nebius is growing faster and has secured major AI infrastructure agreements.
Heavy spending, debt, and execution risks could shape returns for both neocloud stocks.
- 10 stocks we like better than CoreWeave ›
Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) and CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) both provide specialized cloud infrastructure for training and running artificial intelligence (AI) models. CoreWeave scaled rapidly through leased infrastructure, large customer commitments, and extensive debt financing. Nebius is smaller, but it designs and develops its own cloud software, storage, networking, and workload-management tools.
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The better stock depends on whether CoreWeave's scale and backlog outweigh its financing burden, or whether Nebius can turn its stronger financial position into better shareholder returns.
Revenue visibility
CoreWeave generated revenue close to $2.1 billion in the first quarter (ending March 31, 2026), up 112% year over year. The company also 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. These figures show that it already operates at substantial scale and has strong visibility into future revenue. However, much of that backlog will not become revenue until the company delivers the promised computing capacity and makes the service available to customers.
Nebius is a smaller company, but its first-quarter revenue soared 684% year over year to $399 million. The company has also secured access to more than 4 gigawatts of power for its data center expansion. However, much of that future capacity still needs to be built and brought into operation.
Nebius' commercial pipeline generation was about 3.5 times the previous quarter's level. The company has also signed multiple large customer contracts. For instance, Microsoft has agreed to pay up to $17.4 billion through 2031, subject to Nebius installing the promised graphics processing unit (GPU) systems and keeping that computing capacity available. Microsoft can also purchase another $2 billion in services or capacity, potentially increasing the contract's total value to roughly $19.4 billion.
Meta Platforms has agreed to purchase $12 billion of dedicated capacity over the next five years. The company is also required to purchase up to $15 billion of additional capacity if Nebius cannot sell specified capacity to other customers. These agreements reduce the risk that Nebius will build expensive data centers without enough customers to use them.
Heavy financing burden
CoreWeave's 56% adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margin looks impressive, but its adjusted operating margin was only 1% after accounting for depreciation and amortization. Its debt-funded expansion also resulted in $536 million of net interest expense, contributing to a $740 million net loss. CoreWeave ended the first quarter of 2026 with $25.1 billion in debt and $10.1 billion in operating lease liabilities. As a result, depreciation, interest payments, and long-term lease obligations currently leave much less of CoreWeave's revenue available to benefit shareholders.
Nebius has invested about $2.47 billion in property, equipment, and intangible assets during the first quarter. Although operating cash flow reached $2.3 billion, that figure includes a $3.2 billion increase in deferred revenue. This largely reflects customer payments received before Nebius delivers future services. While those prepayments can help fund expansion, they are not recurring free cash flow.
CoreWeave is the better operating business today. But Nebius' lighter financial burden and focus on owned data centers could enable it to deliver better long-term returns for shareholders. Hence, Nebius appears to be a better stock, although investors should monitor whether it can bring new capacity online without excessive debt or dilution.
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Manali Pradhan, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
