CoreWeave, Nebius emerge as AI cloud winners—but face execution risks

Key takeaway

• CoreWeave and Nebius are emerging as major players in AI-focused cloud computing, with CoreWeave posting $2.1 billion（約3400億円） in Q1 revenue and a $100 billion（約16兆円） backlog, while Nebius showed 684% year-over-year revenue growth.

• Both companies have attracted major contracts from Microsoft and Meta Platforms and backing from Nvidia, positioning them as potential winners in the next wave of AI investing.

• However, both face execution risk: they are heavily investing in expensive data center infrastructure without yet being profitable, requiring ongoing capital raises that dilute shareholders and increase debt levels.

3 Key Points

FAQ

What do CoreWeave and Nebius actually do?

Both companies operate in the neocloud space, providing AI-focused cloud computing. Their core concept is to give clients everything they need to build, train, and run AI applications.

Why are these companies considered riskier than first-wave AI stocks?

Neither CoreWeave nor Nebius is profitable yet, and both are heavily investing in building and acquiring data center space—which is expensive. They must raise money through issuing shares or taking on debt to fund these operations, creating shareholder dilution and rising debt levels, whereas first-wave AI stocks like Nvidia were generally guaranteed winners.

What is CoreWeave's revenue backlog?

CoreWeave's revenue backlog reached nearly $100 billion（約16兆円）. The company will work to convert a large part of that backlog into actual revenue over the next few years.