2 AI Stocks to Buy Hand Over Fist

Key Points

• Nebius revenue exploded 625% year over year to $105 million in Q2, with the core business achieving positive adjusted EBITDA ahead of schedule.

• Oracle projects cloud infrastructure revenue will reach $144 billion by 2030, backed by $455 billion in committed contracts.

• Both companies are securing critical AI infrastructure deals while trading at discounts to pure play AI leaders.

• 10 stocks we like better than Nebius Group ›

Growth stocks are thriving in 2025 thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), deregulation, and looming rate cuts. While Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) grabs headlines as the AI chip king, smart investors are finding opportunities in companies building the infrastructure layer that makes AI possible.

These two AI stocks have been on fire in 2025 -- Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS) up 232% and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) up 89% year to date (as of Sept. 11, 2025) -- but both still scan as top buys right now. Here's why.

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Image source: Getty Images.

The AI infrastructure disruptor nobody saw coming

Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) might be the most underappreciated AI story in the market. The Amsterdam-based company is building full-stack infrastructure for AI workloads, and its second-quarter 2025 results show it's executing far faster than expected. Revenue surged 625% year over year to $105.1 million, more than doubling from Q1, while the core business turned positive on adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) months ahead of schedule.

What makes Nebius compelling isn't just the growth rate -- it's the trajectory. Management raised 2025 guidance for annualized run rate revenue to between $900 million and $1.1 billion, implying the company will exit the year approaching a $1 billion annual recurring revenue (ARR) run rate.

To meet surging AI compute demand, Nebius is scaling aggressively, securing over 1 gigawatt of power capacity by the end of 2026. With property and equipment nearly doubling to $1.8 billion and the company adding nearly $1 billion in debt to fund expansion, Nebius is betting everything on becoming a major AI infrastructure player.

Since quarter end, Nebius has announced a multiyear Microsoft AI infrastructure deal worth an estimated $17.4 billion, creating another major tailwind for shareholders. While the stock has surged year to date, the tech pioneer still trades at a significant discount to pure play AI leaders, suggesting potential upside if it executes.

The legacy giant that became an AI powerhouse

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) spent decades as a database company, but its transformation into an AI infrastructure giant has Wall Street doing double takes. Oracle is reshaping enterprise cloud through a multicloud strategy that competitors can't easily replicate. The company's cloud infrastructure revenue is projected to hit $18 billion in fiscal 2026, up 77% year over year, with management guiding to an astronomical $144 billion by fiscal 2030.

These projections are backed by substance. Oracle's remaining performance obligations exploded 359% year over year to $455 billion, with multibillion-dollar AI contracts from OpenAI and Meta Platforms already locked in.

Rather than fighting Amazon and Microsoft head-on, Oracle's multicloud play turned competitors into distribution channels, with database revenue up 1,529% year over year. The company is committing $35 billion in capital expenditures for fiscal 2026, building AI-ready infrastructure that customers are already lining up to use.

In short, Oracle is now front and center in the AI infrastructure build-out, making its stock a compelling buy-and-hold.

The risk-reward setup looks compelling

Both stocks carry risks. Nebius remains unprofitable on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, posting an adjusted net loss of $91.5 million in Q2 despite the positive adjusted EBITDA. Oracle faces different challenges -- using stable database profits to fund its AI build-out only works if the boom continues. Yet the opportunity dwarfs these risks. Nebius offers pure play exposure to AI infrastructure at a fraction of established players' valuations, while Oracle provides a safer path backed by half a trillion dollars in committed contracts.

For growth investors seeking AI exposure beyond semiconductor stocks, Nebius and Oracle offer compelling alternatives. Both companies are building the picks and shovels for the AI gold rush, positioning themselves as essential infrastructure regardless of which AI models ultimately win.

In the AI gold rush, the picks-and-shovels providers often win the biggest -- and Nebius and Oracle are two of the sharpest tools on the shelf.

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George Budwell has positions in Microsoft and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Nebius Group and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.