Investment thesisEquityAI Infrastructure
Nebius Group logo

NBIS

Nebius Group

Scarce GPU capacity is converting into real revenue. I size it for the chance that hyperscalers still win.

Portfolio weight

6.32%

As of August 20, 2026

What the earnings result changed

I added to the position after earnings strengthened my conviction that scarce GPU compute demand is translating into real financial growth. That is the specific thing the report confirmed: not that demand exists, which was already visible, but that it is arriving as revenue.

The thesis centers on very strong compute revenue growth, large contracted demand and backlog, scarce GPU capacity, strong utilization, and pricing power. Those are connected. Scarcity produces the pricing power, utilization turns installed capacity into revenue, and backlog makes the next period visible in advance.

Utilisation, pricing power and infrastructure intensity

The economics depend on keeping expensive hardware busy. A GPU fleet depreciates from the day it is installed, so utilization is the difference between an attractive return and a poor one. Pricing power holds only while capacity remains scarce relative to demand.

This is an extremely capital-intensive business. Growth requires continuous investment in hardware, power and data-center space, which has to be financed before the revenue it generates arrives. Cost of capital is therefore a first-order variable rather than a financial detail.

Competition from hyperscalers, and why sizing stays controlled

I keep it small because Nebius is extremely volatile and competes against hyperscalers with cheaper financing, larger balance sheets, greater infrastructure scale, and the ability to access capital at better rates. Every one of those is a durable advantage in a business where the constraint is capital and power rather than software.

There is no assumption here that independent GPU cloud providers automatically win the long-term compute market. It is entirely possible that hyperscalers ultimately dominate compute, and that independents end up serving overflow demand at thinner margins. That possibility is why I keep it small rather than why I avoid it. The return if scarcity persists is large enough to justify a controlled allocation against a real chance of being wrong.

Valuation basis

Earnings are not the right lens yet. The comparable basis against other neoclouds is a revenue multiple, and the peers worth comparing against are the other independent AI-infrastructure businesses, with CoreWeave the closest match on business model and capital structure. The hyperscalers compete hard for the same workloads, but a diversified platform's multiple describes a different financial object and should not be averaged in.

Relative valuation

Valuation updated August 2026

Forward P/E

Not applicable. Not yet profitable.

Direct peers

used in the average

Similar enough that comparing multiples is meaningful.

CRWV

CRWV

CoreWeave

95% similar

fwd P/E pending

same business modeloverlapping productssame revenue model
IREN Limited logo

IREN

IREN Limited

78% similar

fwd P/E pending

same business modelsame revenue modelsame customer type
APLD

APLD

Applied Digital

77% similar

fwd P/E pending

same business modelsame revenue modelsimilar capital intensity
Cerebras Systems logo

CBRS

Cerebras Systems

71% similar

fwd P/E pending

same business modelsame revenue modelsimilar capital intensity

Strategic competitors

never averaged

Competing for the same customers or budget, but too different financially for their multiple to say much about this holding.

Amazon.com logo

AMZN

Amazon.com

49% similar

fwd P/E pending

same revenue modelsimilar capital intensitysame end markets

Excluded from peer average: too diversified for a clean multiple comparison

ORCL

ORCL

Oracle

47% similar

fwd P/E pending

same revenue modelsimilar capital intensitysame customer type

Excluded from peer average: too diversified for a clean multiple comparison

MSFT

MSFT

Microsoft

34% similar

fwd P/E pending

similar capital intensitysame end marketssame customer type

Excluded from peer average: too diversified for a clean multiple comparison

Alphabet Class A logo

GOOGL

Alphabet Class A

28% similar

fwd P/E pending

similar capital intensitysame customer typesame end markets

Excluded from peer average: too diversified for a clean multiple comparison

Selected by weighted similarity across business model, revenue model, products, end markets, customer type, capital intensity, growth, margins and geography. Direct peers score ≥55% and sit within 2 diversification steps; only they feed the peer average.