Wall Street loves artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure -- until something goes wrong. Then, suddenly, everyone remembers that building massive data centers requires construction schedules, vendor coordination, and capital allocation decisions that can stumble in the real world. The recent pullback in neocloud providers isn't about demand evaporating. It's about the market repricing execution risk.
That creates opportunity. When a company with a multibillion-dollar backlog misses guidance by $200 million because a single vendor fails to meet a deadline, the stock often overreacts. When a hypergrowth platform raising capital to fund expansion gets dinged for dilution, impatient investors flee. Smart money waits for exactly these moments. Here's a look at two AI stocks where temporary setbacks are masking extraordinary long-term positioning.
Image source: Getty Images.
The power utility play
CoreWeave (CRWV +0.03%) operates specialized cloud infrastructure purpose-built for AI workloads, competing directly with traditional hyperscalers but with better performance for GPU-intensive applications. (GPU is the acronym for graphics processing units.) Third-quarter revenue hit $1.36 billion, up 134% year over year, driven by contracts with OpenAI and Meta Platforms. The company's revenue backlog of more than $55 billion -- over 10 times its current annualized revenue -- essentially de-risks the demand question for years to come.
NASDAQ: CRWV
Key Data Points
The stock pulled back because a delay by a third-party vendor forced management to cut guidance by roughly $200 million. That's execution risk, not a demand problem. The real concern is CoreWeave's balance sheet -- the company already carries around $11 billion in debt and billions more in lease and contractual commitments. Forbes characterizes its AI build-out as a "$29 billion debt-fueled bet." At around 3 times forward sales, the stock offers a confirmed revenue stream at a reasonable multiple -- assuming management can execute the massive infrastructure build-out without further delays.
The challenger with hyperscale backing
Nebius Group (NBIS +6.55%) provides GPU cloud infrastructure and AI platforms, targeting the same AI training and inference market but at an earlier scale. Q3 revenue reached $146 million, up 355% year over year. More importantly, the company has secured approximately $20 billion in long-term, hyperscaler contracts, including a $17.4 billion, five-year deal with Microsoft and approximately $3 billion with Meta. Analysts project a 233% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue from 2024 through 2027, and management is targeting $7 billion to $9 billion in annualized run-rate revenue by the end of 2026.
NASDAQ: NBIS
Key Data Points
The valuation reflects that ambition -- Nebius trades at 8 times forward sales at recent prices, effectively pricing in near-flawless execution. The stock dipped after the company missed Q3 revenue estimates and announced equity raises to fund capital expenditures of over $5 billion. That dilution concerns investors, but it's also a necessary means of funding explosive growth. The Microsoft and Meta contracts provide institutional validation that the platform works at scale.
For investors willing to accept dilution risk and near-term volatility, the hyperscaler backing and aggressive growth trajectory make this recent dip in the stock worth considering.
The infrastructure advantage
The neocloud space is experiencing growing pains, not a growth problem. Demand for GPU infrastructure vastly exceeds supply, and these execution stumbles -- vendor delays, capital raises, construction schedules -- are the normal friction of building physical infrastructure at unprecedented speed.
CoreWeave offers the lower-risk play with proven scale and massive backlog visibility. Nebius delivers the higher beta option levered to explosive growth. Both benefit from the same structural tailwind: Enterprises need vastly more AI compute capacity than traditional cloud providers can deliver on acceptable timelines. That's the kind of supply demand imbalance that creates generational infrastructure opportunities. Both of these stocks offer direct exposure to this potent theme.
