What's the best-performing artificial intelligence (AI) stock so far this year? To make it easier for you to guess, I'll limit the field to only those with a market cap of $10 billion or more. To help further, here are a couple of hints: It's not Nvidia or CoreWeave.
The correct answer is Nebius Group (NBIS -1.81%). Shares of this AI hyperscaler have skyrocketed by around 370% year to date. No other AI stock has come close to that sizzling gain.
Wall Street thinks Nebius' momentum can continue. Is investing in Nebius Group stock a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
Behind Nebius Group's meteoric success
Nebius Group conducted its initial public offering (IPO) in October 2024. However, the company's roots go back much further than that.
It was originally part of the Russian search-engine giant Yandex. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, founder Arkady Volozh resigned as Yandex's CEO but retained control of the Dutch holding company that owned it. Volozh spearheaded the holding company's rebranding as Nebius Group, with a focus on AI infrastructure.
That decision looks brilliant in retrospect. The demand for AI data centers has soared, fueled largely by the rapid development of generative AI applications. Nebius Group isn't as big as some of its rivals, but customers have flocked to its large-scale GPU clusters in Europe and the U.S.
The company's AI cloud platform offers top-tier performance, reliability, and scalability. Nebius Group provides a wide range of software and services that help organizations build and deploy AI models. Its ISEG2 system ranks as the fastest commercially available supercomputer in Europe and No. 13 worldwide.
While AI infrastructure is Nebius Group's main business, the company is involved in other areas, as well. Nebius Group has two subsidiaries, autonomous driving technology-innovator Avride and technology education platform TripleTen. It also owns stakes in open-source database company ClickHouse and curated AI data provider Toloka.
Nebius Group's business is booming. Revenue soared 625% year over year in the second quarter of 2025 and more than doubled from the previous quarter. The company expects to have an annualized revenue run rate of between $900 million and $1.1 billion by the end of 2025.
The "next great leap in technology"
Volozh recently wrote to shareholders, "[W]e stand at the brink of the next great leap in technology." He believes that the current AI infrastructure will need to be replaced and only a few companies have the financial resources and technological expertise to compete in this market. However, that small group includes Nebius.
The sheer number of new large language models (LLMs) being built is one key factor behind Nebius Group's growth prospects. It isn't just leading tech companies that are developing AI applications -- thousands of start-ups are scrambling to harness the power of AI, too.
Image source: Getty Images.
Importantly, the number of use cases for AI is growing by leaps and bounds, as well. For example, agentic AI holds the potential to automate workflows for many companies. Nebius Group sees this as a major driver of increased demand for AI infrastructure.
Investors can't ignore the AI advances that could be on the way, either. Several top AI companies are working hard on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI). If they're successful -- or even if they don't achieve their goals but still make significant progress -- the need for AI infrastructure could increase dramatically.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
I agree with Volozh's recent statement, "We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation opportunity." But does that make investing in Nebius Group a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Maybe.
It's a mistake to underestimate how big a game changer AI could be. The demand for AI infrastructure will almost certainly increase over the next decade and beyond. Nebius Group won't be the only winner from this trend, but it should be one of them.
