As demand for artificial intelligence outpaces the physical infrastructure needed to run it, one company is being singled out as a potential winner: Nebius, which trades under the ticker NBIS.
According to 24/7 Wall St., the stock has roughly 40% upside in 2026 as a global shortage of AI data centers worsens. The case rests on a handful of striking numbers.
Per the reporting summarized by Bing News, Nebius grew first-quarter revenue 684% year over year. The company also holds a $50 billion contracted backlog — essentially future revenue it has already locked in — anchored by deals with two of the biggest names in tech, Microsoft and Meta.
The backdrop is a severe space crunch. The same source notes that North American data center vacancy has collapsed to 0.9%, meaning almost no available capacity remains for companies racing to train and run AI models. When supply is that tight, firms that already own and operate computing capacity gain pricing power and a steady pipeline of customers.
That scarcity is the core of the bullish argument. A growing revenue base, marquee customers, and a large committed backlog suggest Nebius is positioned to capture demand that the broader market simply cannot meet right now.
A few caveats are worth keeping in mind. The 40% figure is an analyst projection, not a guarantee, and explosive percentage growth is easier to post from a smaller starting base. Backlogs also depend on deals being fulfilled as planned.
Why it matters: the AI boom is increasingly constrained not by software or ideas but by physical computing capacity, and that bottleneck is turning data center operators like Nebius into some of the most closely watched stocks of the AI era.