New York, February 20, 2026, 14:49 (EST) — Regular session
- NBIS fell about 8% in afternoon trade after topping $108 earlier in the session
- Shares had gained more than 10% over the prior two sessions amid fresh bullish coverage and heavy options activity
- Investors are focusing on funding and execution risk tied to Nebius’ 2026 build-out and the next earnings window
Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS) shares on Nasdaq fell about 8% on Friday to $99.12, slipping below $100 in afternoon trade after touching $108.30 earlier in the session. Volume topped 12.8 million shares.
The swing matters because Nebius sits in the middle of the “neo-cloud” trade — smaller providers that rent out AI computing — where investors are quick to reprice stocks on any hint about demand, capacity and funding.
Nebius had risen more than 10% over Wednesday and Thursday before Friday’s drop, a run that underscored how fast money has been rotating in and out of the name. (StockAnalysis)
Part of that bid came after Compass Point analyst Michael Donovan initiated coverage with a buy rating and a $150 price target, Benzinga reported. (Benzinga)
Options activity also stayed busy. TheFly flagged 16,540 calls traded on Thursday — about 1.4 times the expected pace — and said implied volatility, a measure of expected share swings priced into options, rose to about 94%, according to TipRanks. (TipRanks)
Nebius was not alone on the downside. TipRanks said other AI “neo-cloud” names CoreWeave and IREN were also sharply lower on Friday amid tariff headlines and company-level updates. (TipRanks)
Nebius, based in Amsterdam, rents out Nvidia processors and cloud capacity and counts Microsoft and Meta among its customers. Earlier this month it flagged a surge in quarterly capital spending and said it would add nine new data-center sites; CEO Arkady Volozh wrote that “demand … continues to outpace supply.” (Reuters)
On its Feb. 12 earnings call, the company pegged 2026 capital expenditure at $16 billion to $20 billion and said it already had about 60% of the needed funding from its balance sheet, operations and commitments. Management said it was exploring debt and asset-backed financing and would be “mindful about the shareholder dilution” if it issued equity. (The Fly)
But the spending plan leaves little room for stumbles. Any delay in connecting power, lining up GPUs, or delivering customer capacity could push revenue out while costs keep running, forcing the company to lean harder on debt markets or equity.
A Feb. 10 SEC filing also showed Nebius signed an agreement to buy Tavily, with cash upfront and additional consideration tied to performance that could be paid in cash or in Nebius Class A shares.
The broader tech tape was firmer — the Nasdaq-tracking QQQ ETF rose about 0.9% and Nvidia was up about 0.7% — leaving Nebius as an outlier on the day.
The next catalyst is the company’s next results, which MarketBeat estimates for April 29 before the market opens, though Nebius has not confirmed a date. Investors will be looking for any fresh detail on funding and whether new capacity is converting into booked revenue at the pace the market is pricing in. (Marketbeat)
