William Blair Rates CoreWeave and Nebius Group Outperform
William Blair initiated coverage of neocloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius Group with Outperform ratings, citing their positions in the AI infrastructure buildout.
Investment firm William Blair initiated coverage of neocloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius Group on Wednesday, assigning both companies Outperform ratings. Analyst Jason Ader identified both firms as well-positioned to benefit from the accelerating buildout of AI infrastructure.
CoreWeave is recognized for its AI-native architecture and maintains a committed backlog of approximately $130 billion, reporting second-quarter revenue of $2.58 billion. Despite high debt and negative free cash flow resulting from $37 billion in annual capital spending, Ader noted that recent contract economics indicate improving returns.
Nebius Group is transitioning into a full-stack AI cloud platform and has increased its annualized revenue run rate from $1.25 billion in 2025 to roughly $3 billion in the second quarter. The company has secured long-term commitments from Meta and Microsoft and increased its contracted power target to 5 gigawatts, supported by a balance sheet stronger than those of its peers.
