3 AI Stocks Crushing Nvidia This Year

CoreWeave is up more than 65% in 2026, Nebius more than 80%, and Applied Digital 37%, reflecting strong investor enthusiasm for AI infrastructure names. Wall Street expects explosive growth ahead: CoreWeave revenue is projected to rise 143% in 2026 and 89% in 2027, while Nebius is forecast to grow 523% and 206% over the same periods. Applied Digital’s most recent quarter showed 139% revenue growth, but the article notes all three remain unprofitable and reliant on debt-funded expansion.

Analysis

The market is rewarding the “picks-and-shovels” layer of AI infrastructure, but the real signal is that hyperscaler and model-buildout demand is still outrunning available capacity. That favors the nearest-term monetizers of GPU scarcity and power-constrained data center expansion, especially names with contracted revenue visibility and the ability to reprice capacity quickly. The second-order winner is the supply chain behind these platforms—power gear, cooling, networking, and specialty financing—because the bottleneck has shifted from compute availability to site readiness and electricity delivery.

CoreWeave and Nebius are effectively leveraged plays on the same underlying spend cycle, but their equity profiles are more convex than the base AI trade because the market is still underwriting execution, financing, and utilization. That means upside can persist for months if backlog converts cleanly, but drawdowns can be violent if customer concentration, debt markets, or capex efficiency wobble. Applied Digital is the cleaner “real assets” expression: if it can keep converting power interconnects into leased capacity, it benefits from the same demand without as much model risk, though margin durability depends on tenant renewal economics.

The key contrarian point is that the crowd is treating revenue growth as a proxy for value creation, when in this sub-sector it can also be a proxy for balance-sheet intensity. If debt markets tighten or refinancing spreads widen, the current winners can de-rate quickly even if top-line momentum remains strong. Nvidia’s continued equity stakes provide sentiment support, but they do not eliminate the risk that infrastructure supply eventually catches up and compresses pricing power across the cohort over a 12-24 month horizon.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Stay long NVDA as the highest-quality exposure, but use it as a funding source: trim into strength and rotate into a small basket of CRWV/NBIS/APLD where operating leverage is higher. Expect better near-term upside in 3-6 months, but materially higher drawdown risk.
• Go long CRWV vs short a basket of software/AI beneficiaries that lack direct capacity monetization over the next 1-2 quarters; the trade is a bet that capital intensity remains rewarded while the AI infrastructure bottleneck persists.
• Initiate a smaller tactical long NBIS on pullbacks, with a 6-12 month horizon. It has the highest growth optionality, but size it below CRWV because execution and funding sensitivity are likely to dominate if markets turn risk-off.
• For lower-beta exposure, prefer APLD over CRWV/NBIS as a relative-value long. It offers a cleaner asset-backed story; target a 3-5% position with tighter stops if financing conditions tighten.
• Avoid initiating outright shorts here unless funding stress appears. If credit spreads widen or a secondary offering is announced, then consider put spreads on the most levered name for a 1-3 month catalyst window.