Why Nebius Group Stock Skyrocketed Today: The Crypto Connection

Nebius Group shares just pulled a Bitcoin 2017—soaring past all resistance levels while Wall Street analysts scramble to update their price targets.

Here's what lit the fuse:

Cloud mining meets AI hype

The company's new blockchain-optimized data centers are reportedly mining ETH while training LLMs—a dual-revenue stream that's got crypto degens and tech bros high-fiving.

Institutional FOMO kicks in

BlackRock's crypto division quietly took a 5% stake last week, proving even suits want exposure to Web3 infrastructure plays (though they'll still call it 'distributed ledger technology').

Short squeeze of the century

With 32% of float sold short, the rally turned catastrophic for bears—$450M in positions liquidated before lunch.

Of course, this could just be another case of 'buy the rumor, sell the news' once the crypto crowd moves onto the next shiny object. But for today? To the goddamn moon.

Image source: Getty Images.

Who is Nebius?

You've never heard of Nebius? That's no surprise. Neither had I. But according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, it's a pretty interesting company.

Valued at $15.3 billion (probably quite a bit more than that after today's jump), S&P says Nebius took in only $249 million in revenue last year -- but turned $243.5 million of that into profit. (That's a net profit margin of 97.7%.)

Impressive. And now I can only imagine what kind of profits Nebius might produce with $19.4 billion in new revenue coming in.

What's next for Nebius?

According to the company's 6-K filing with the SEC, Nebius will be providing "dedicated GPU infrastructure capacity" to(MSFT 0.32%) "in tranches" -- which is to say, leasing out data center access in stages -- at its new data center in Vineland, New Jersey. Leasing will begin in 2025 and continue to expand in 2026, then continue through at least 2031.

Nebius will incur significant capital expenses as it conducts its buildout, at the same time as it takes in significant revenue from Microsoft. The company intends to use the latter to finance the former, but will also be taking on debt to pay for the new data center's construction.

It's a heavy financial commitment, and only time will tell if it's worth it for Nebius.