NEW YORK, Jan 2, 2026, 15:09 ET — Regular session
- Nebius Group N.V. shares rose about 7% in afternoon trading, beating broader tech benchmarks.
- A rally in chip and AI-hardware names lifted sentiment across the “AI infrastructure” trade.
- Investors are watching next week’s U.S. jobs data and any fresh signals on AI spending and capacity.
Shares of Nebius Group N.V. were up 7.4% at $89.91 on Friday afternoon, extending a rebound in AI infrastructure-linked stocks as chip names led the market.
The move matters because Nebius is widely seen as a high-beta proxy for demand for graphics processing units, or GPUs — chips used to train and run artificial intelligence models. When investors lean into AI hardware, smaller infrastructure suppliers often swing harder.
Friday was the first full U.S. trading session of 2026, with traders recalibrating risk after last year’s gains and turning to early-year macro catalysts that can reset interest-rate expectations.
Chip stocks outperformed even as the broader market was choppy. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index was up about 3.5% in early afternoon, Reuters reported.
Nvidia, whose GPUs sit at the center of most AI buildouts, gained 1.4%, while server maker Super Micro Computer rose 6.6%, according to market data.
“Stocks trade expensive” on most measures, Savita Subramanian, Bank of America’s equity and quant strategist, wrote in a note cited by Reuters. Reuters
Nebius’ move on Friday came without an obvious company-specific headline. Trading instead tracked the broader “picks-and-shovels” AI trade, where hardware and capacity providers rise and fall with chip sentiment.
Nebius, based in the Netherlands, builds AI-focused cloud infrastructure, including GPU clusters and developer tools, and also owns businesses such as Toloka, TripleTen and Avride, according to a Reuters company profile.
The company has signed multi-year AI infrastructure agreements with Microsoft and Meta worth $17.4 billion and about $3 billion, respectively, Reuters has reported.
In November, Nebius reported a more than fourfold rise in third-quarter revenue, alongside a quarterly loss of more than $100 million as capital expenditures jumped to $955.5 million to secure GPUs, land and power, Reuters reported.
The stock traded between $85.55 and $90.72 on Friday after opening at $86.90. Volume was about 7.2 million shares by mid-afternoon.
For NBIS investors, attention is on whether the company can scale capacity fast enough to meet demand while keeping spending and losses in check. Pricing and contract economics with hyperscalers — the biggest cloud providers — remain a key watchpoint as competition for power and chips tightens.
Macro headlines may steer the near term. Traders are focused on next week’s U.S. labor market data and how it feeds into Federal Reserve expectations — a key driver for high-growth tech shares.
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