What is a neocloud? The investor's guide to neocloud stocks — the public GPU-cloud operators ($CRWV, $NBIS, $IREN, $APLD), the bitcoin miners pivoting to AI, the shared NVIDIA/Vertiv/TSMC supply chain, how to invest, and the risks.
More Macroplane supply-chain guides · Baskets · Investment theses · Macro trends
A neocloud is a specialized AI cloud provider that builds and operates its own NVIDIA GPU data centers and rents that accelerated compute to AI labs and enterprises. It runs one product — GPUs at scale — rather than the broad service catalogue of a general-purpose hyperscaler like AWS or Azure. The term was popularized to describe operators that emerged specifically to serve the GPU shortage.
The public pure-plays are CoreWeave ($CRWV), Nebius ($NBIS), and Applied Digital ($APLD). A cohort of bitcoin miners is pivoting into the same business — IREN ($IREN), Hut 8 ($HUT), TeraWulf ($WULF), Cipher Mining ($CIFR), and Bitdeer ($BTDR). The hardware builders behind them include Celestica ($CLS), Super Micro ($SMCI), and Penguin Solutions ($PENG). All of them sit in the AI Cloud / Neoclouds basket. Private neoclouds like Lambda and Crusoe have no ticker.
A hyperscaler (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) sells thousands of services and treats GPUs as one of many. A neocloud sells GPU compute and almost nothing else, optimizing its racks, networking, cooling and power deals around accelerated workloads. The upside is focus and speed; the downside is concentration — a neocloud's whole business rides on GPU demand.
Yes to both. CoreWeave ($CRWV) is the largest US pure-play neocloud, running entirely NVIDIA GPUs. Nebius ($NBIS) is the European-rooted, vertically integrated neocloud that builds its own data centers rather than leasing them. They are the two defining names in the category.
Not a pure one as of 2026. Broad AI-infrastructure and data-center ETFs hold some neocloud names alongside $NVDA and the hyperscalers, but they dilute the exposure heavily. To track the operators directly, the AI Cloud / Neoclouds basket is the closest equal-weight view.
That depends on your view of GPU-cloud economics and your tolerance for volatility. The bull case is contracted backlogs (anchor deals with Meta and Microsoft reported in the tens of billions) funding fast data-center ramps. The bear case is customer concentration, debt-funded capex, GPU allocation risk, and chip depreciation. This is not financial advice — review the latest filings and size for the swings.