This Underrated AI Stock Could Be the Best Growth Story of the Decade

Key Points

• Nebius Group is one of the few AI hyperscalers that can meet the AI infrastructure demands of the future.

• Its stock is arguably underrated compared to other AI stocks such as CoreWeave and Nvidia.

• Even if Nebius doesn't become the best growth story of the decade, it looks like a contender.

• 10 stocks we like better than Nebius Group ›

What companies come to mind first when you hear the words "artificial intelligence"? I suspect that Nvidia, ChatGPT creator OpenAI, or Google parent Alphabet would rank near the top of the list for many investors.

On the other hand, I doubt that Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) would be among the most common responses. But maybe it should. This underrated AI stock could be the best growth story of the decade.

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"Exciting times"

Nebius' primary focus is on its AI cloud platform. It also operates two subsidiaries: autonomous vehicle technology developer Avride and leading education technology provider TripleTen. In addition, Nebius owns stakes in open-source database platform provider ClickHouse and AI data specialist Toloka.

Arkady Volozh, Nebius' founder and CEO, opened his latest letter to shareholders by stating, "These are exciting times." He declared: "[W]e stand at the brink of the next great leap in technology. To achieve this, we need to build [an] entirely new infrastructure for AI." Volozh believes that Nebius is one of only a handful of AI hyperscalers with the capability to meet the task at hand.

Nebius is expanding its capacity rapidly to meet the surging demand. In particular, the company is working to secure more than 1 gigawatt of power by the end of 2026. That's critical considering the importance of electricity to power-hungry AI data centers.

This rapid expansion requires a lot of money. Nebius is in a good position on that front as well. It has lined up more than $4 billion in capital. The company's balance sheet should also allow it to pursue additional financing options as needed.

Underrated?

Is Nebius really underrated? There's a good case that it is.

Nebius' share price has nearly quadrupled year to date. That's a much stronger performance than Nvidia has delivered. Nebius has also handily outgained fellow hyperscaler and IPO darling CoreWeave.

The sizzling returns are warranted. Nebius' revenue soared 625% year over year and 106% sequentially in the second quarter of 2025. Although Nvidia and CoreWeave are generating strong revenue growth, neither company is anywhere close to Nebius' pace.

Nebius has landed several marquee customers. Cloudflare and Shopify especially stand out. The AI cloud provider is also winning ground with lots of up-and-coming AI players, such as HeyGen, Lightning.AI, and Photoroom.

But Nebius isn't getting nearly as much attention as other AI leaders. For example, Google Search returns fewer than 1.6 million results mentioning Nebius so far this year. By comparison, CoreWeave has nearly twice as many results. Unsurprisingly, Nvidia has far more (around 119 million).

The best growth story of the decade?

Nebius is already one of the fastest-growing large-cap stocks in 2025. Could it really be the best growth story of the decade? Maybe.

I expect continued explosive demand for AI infrastructure as companies of all sizes scramble to build and deploy AI models. In particular, AI inference should be a huge opportunity. I agree with Volozh's view that Nebius is one of only a few hyperscalers positioned to be the biggest winners from these trends.

Don't overlook the potential for Avride and TripleTen to boost Nebius' growth. In particular, I think Avride has great opportunities in expanding its partnerships to use autonomous robots to deliver orders from restaurants and groceries to customers.

What about Nebius' valuation? The company isn't profitable yet, so we can't use earnings-based valuation metrics. However, Nebius' shares trade at 147 times trailing-12-month sales. But with revenue more than doubling from Q1 to Q2, that sky-high price-to-sales multiple doesn't look nearly as scary.

I won't go out on a limb and predict that Nebius will definitely be the best growth story of the decade. At this point, though, I think it could very well be a contender.

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Keith Speights has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Cloudflare, Nvidia, and Shopify. The Motley Fool recommends Nebius Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.