Shares of Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) spiked on Wednesday after the cloud computing provider delivered dazzling growth metrics.

Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »

Torrid growth

Nebius has emerged as a key beneficiary of the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure race.

Semiconductor chip shortages and other supply chain bottlenecks have led to capacity constraints among the major hyperscalers. That's driven a lot of business to so-called neoclouds -- specialized suppliers of high-performance computing services specifically designed for AI workloads.

Nebius has some of the most impressive growth among the neoclouds, fueled by its full-stack platform, which offers proprietary hardware, ultra-fast data storage, low-latency networking, and an array of developer tools.

Its second-quarter revenue soared 454% year over year to $582 million.

"Demand for AI capacity continues to grow exponentially," CEO Arkady Volozh said in a letter to shareholders.

Still, Nebius is not yet profitable. But its adjusted net loss narrowed to $33 million from $92 million in the year-ago quarter.

The company also generated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $236 million, up from a loss of $21 million in the prior-year period.

A short squeeze could be at play

Nebius has become a battleground stock. Bulls point to the massive profit potential for AI infrastructure providers, while bears raise concerns about the high costs of expansion and the risk that this heavy spending may not produce the returns investors expect.

Nebius, in turn, is a heavily shorted stock. Those bets might be adding fuel to this rally, as short-sellers need to buy stock to close out their positions.

Should you buy stock in Nebius Group right now?

Before you buy stock in Nebius Group, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nebius Group wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $403,337!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,334,946!*