Constructing knowledge facilities is a pricey endeavor.
There are just a few fascinating methods to put money into the expansion of synthetic intelligence (AI), however one in every of my favorites proper now could be AI infrastructure. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has estimated that corporations will spend $3 trillion to $4 trillion on AI infrastructure and knowledge facilities by 2030 — and Huang has been proper much more than he is been flawed.
Chipmakers are plowing as a lot as they’ll into making extra highly effective chips, however there’s additionally a rising want for knowledge middle capability. Builders and corporations are extra seemingly to make use of cloud environments for AI coaching and inference due to the large expense in shopping for, bundling, and powering chips.
I invested in Nebius Group (NBIS 7.12%), a rising Dutch firm that gives cloud infrastructure for AI environments. However the extra I find out about Iren Restricted (IREN 8.67%), the extra I respect that enterprise mannequin.
Let’s take a look at these two corporations.
Picture supply: Getty Pictures.
Nebius Group: Reinvention was vital
Nebius Group relies within the Netherlands, nevertheless it used to have ties to Russia. The corporate was previously known as Yandex N.V., and its main enterprise was a Russian web firm of the identical title. Yandex traded on the Nasdaq Inventory Market, however Nasdaq suspended buying and selling when Russian corporations have been hit with sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The corporate offered off its Russian belongings, rebranded as Nebius, and finally began buying and selling once more on the Nasdaq.
Now, Nebius is an AI infrastructure firm that gives large-scale clusters of Nvidia’s graphics processing models (GPUs) all through Europe, the Center East, and the U.S. The corporate provides entry to as much as 32 Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs on an on-demand foundation, in addition to contracts for full-stack AI infrastructure that options Nvidia Blackwell GPUs.
The corporate reported fast-growing income of $146.1 million within the third quarter, up 355% from a yr in the past, and promoted its new $3 billion cope with Meta Platforms to supply AI infrastructure for the following 5 years. That comes on the heels of its first huge win, a cope with Microsoft value as much as $19.4 billion, which was introduced in September.
Immediately’s Change
(-7.12%) $-6.71
Present Value
$87.57
Key Knowledge Factors
Market Cap
$22B
Day’s Vary
$86.23 – $95.57
52wk Vary
$18.31 – $141.10
Quantity
465K
Avg Vol
19M
Gross Margin
-1312.43%
And whereas the income development is pricey, Nebius nonetheless will not be turning a revenue as a result of it is horribly costly to construct and run knowledge facilities. The corporate reported a web lack of $100.4 million for the quarter and has incurred web losses of $273.7 million for the yr to this point.
“We now have persistently mentioned that we’re dedicated to rising our enterprise aggressively, and we’re persevering with to ship on this dedication. 2025 has been a constructing yr as we put in place the infrastructure and framework for future fast development,” CEO Arkady Volozh mentioned in a letter to shareholders.
The corporate plans to have as much as 1 gigawatt of contracted energy by the tip of 2026, and is searching for extra websites that may enable it to have as much as 2.5 GW of energy.
Iren Restricted: Powered by cryptocurrency income
Iren is an Australian firm that can also be within the AI infrastructure enterprise. What units it aside is that it makes most of its cash from Bitcoin, which permits it to be worthwhile because it begins constructing knowledge facilities and including capability.
It presently has three knowledge facilities in Canada and one in Texas, and it is constructing a second knowledge middle in Texas. It is also touting a serious AI deal of its personal, having signed a $9.7 billion deal to supply Microsoft with cloud computing providers, utilizing Nvidia GPUs. As a part of the deal, it is also shopping for $5.8 billion in GPUs and tools from Dell Applied sciences.
Immediately’s Change
(-8.67%) $-3.81
Present Value
$40.13
Key Knowledge Factors
Market Cap
$13B
Day’s Vary
$39.32 – $44.17
52wk Vary
$5.13 – $76.87
Quantity
36M
Avg Vol
42M
Gross Margin
31.17%
Income within the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (ended Sept. 30, 2025) was $240.3 million, up 335% from a yr in the past. And the corporate posted web earnings of $384.6 million, versus a lack of $51.7 million a yr in the past.
Bitcoin mining income made up nearly all of the corporate’s income, at $232.9 million, whereas AI cloud providers income was solely $7.3 million. However the firm is laying the groundwork for way more.
“Wanting forward, our introduced growth to 140k GPUs represents solely 16% of our 3 GW grid-connected energy portfolio, offering ample capability to proceed scaling Iren’s AI cloud platform and drive long-term worth creation,” mentioned co-CEO Daniel Roberts.
Which firm is a greater purchase?
I am by no means a fan of going into debt, however I do know it is necessary for corporations to construct their merchandise. The issue with AI infrastructure is that it is costly — and people prices aren’t going to go away. GPUs have a restricted shelf life, and corporations like Nvidia are already engaged on future generations.
Iren permits traders to buy inventory in an AI knowledge middle firm that is not incurring debt. That offers Iren an enormous benefit over corporations like Nebius and CoreWeave, which is why I desire it as a purchase proper now.
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