IREN Vs Nebius: Which Neocloud Stock Is A Better Bet Heading Into 2026?

Both IREN and Nebius have emerged as standout neocloud beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom, but they represent two distinct ways to play the theme.

• IREN’s vertically integrated, bare-metal model offers cost advantages and near-term cash flow support from Bitcoin mining.
• Nebius, by contrast, is positioning itself as a full-stack AI cloud platform with stronger margins and longer-term software leverage.
• Retail sentiment is downbeat, but Wall Street firms stay optimistic, given the supply-demand imbalance.

Two neoclouds that have been runaway winners this year amid surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related services are IREN Limited (IREN) and Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS). These companies have been riding the surging demand for data center infrastructure from hyperscalers and other AI players.

Iren and Nebius belong to a class of companies called neoclouds, which are specialized cloud providers that offer a range of services, including GPUs-as-a-service (GPUaaS), fast networking, and optimized software.

IREN Vs Nebius: How Shares Stacked Up

Sydney, Australia-based IREN, founded in 2018 by siblings Daniel and Will Roberts, has seen its shares surge by over 300% this year. Nebius was not far behind with a gain of 225%. Both stocks saw a real liftoff only since August, but are trading below their year-highs.

Source: Koyfin<

While IREN is about 48% off this year’s peak ($76.87) and Nebius has shed 38% from its all-time high of $141.10, reached on Oct. 10.

IREN Vs NBIS: Which Has a Better Business Model

IREN, formerly an energy company, branched out into Bitcoin mining and then pivoted to AI infrastructure, owning and operating land, power, data centers, and GPUs to provide cost-efficient, high-performance computing capacity. It is often considered a provider of “bare-metal, contract-based GPU capacity, and is therefore preferred by startups and cloud providers. 

On the other hand, Nebius, a spin-off of the publicly traded Yandex Group, the Dutch holding company of the Russian Internet giant Yandex, provides a full-stack cloud platform. Its services include the supply of cost-efficient GPU clusters, cloud platforms, managed services for AI training and inference, and tools and services for developers.

IREN Vs Nebius: How Fundamentals Stack Up

In terms of revenue growth, IREN’s revenue has been trending upward this year, whereas Nenius has shown volatility in the growth pace.

Source: Fiscal.ai<

Nebius has a better gross margin percentage from the latest quarter’s report, although IREN trails by only a little over four percentage points. The former has seen a steadily climbing margin since the fourth quarter of 2024.

Source: Fiscal.ai<

Although IREN generated a profit for the September quarter, thanks to contributions from Bitcoin mining, free cash flow was negative. Nebius reported a loss for the September quarter and a negative free cash flow.

IREN Vs Nebius: Valuation

In terms of stock valuation, based on the forward Price/Sales (P/S) ratio, Nebius is slightly pricier at 9.54 compared to IREN’s 8.7.

According to Koyfin, 72% of the 14 analysts covering IREN’s stock have a buy-equivalent rating, and the average analyst price target ($83) implies over 105% upside potential. About 78% of the nine analysts covering Nebius stock have buy-equivalent ratings. The average analyst price target for IREN stock ($151.50) suggests roughly 73% upside potential.

Retail traders, however, are downbeat. Both IREN and Nebius shares elicited ‘extremely bearish’ sentiment from among users of the Stocktwits platform.

Retail Sentiment For IREN 

Retail Sentiment For Nebius

However, retail interest in the stock has risen this year. Over the past year, IREN’s followers on the platform increased by 276%, while Nebius’s have climbed by a steeper 1270%.

Earlier this month, Goldman initiated the coverage of IREN stock with a ‘Neutral’ rating, the Fly reported. While calling IREN a “hypergrowth” company, analysts at the firm expressed wariness over its valuation. They see the valuation as “relatively full. That said, the analysts expect outsized growth over the next several years as its Microsoft deal scales. But growth beyond that is uncertain, they said.

Following Nebius’ September quarter results, Citizens JMP analysts initiated coverage of the stock with an ‘Outperform’ rating and a $175 price target. The analysts see the deployment of graphics processing unit clusters as an opportunity to "unlock significant value” and expect strong pricing trends due to continued supply/demand imbalance.

The Better Bet

At current levels, the choice is between IREN’s cost-efficient infrastructure scale versus the platform depth and margin expansion potential of Nebius. With both stocks still well below their highs, sustained execution—and proof that demand remains durable beyond the current AI buildout—will likely determine which neocloud ultimately delivers more durable shareholder value.

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