Three neoclouds, one pattern: revenue up, losses up, capex far ahead of both
CoreWeave, Nebius and Cerebras all grew fast and lost more money in Q2 2026. The spending curves say capacity is still being contracted ahead of the demand it serves.
The Product Desk
What happened
- CoreWeave, Nebius and Cerebras posted Q2 2026 earnings in the same week; all three saw revenues accelerate as demand for AI services increased, and all three posted growing losses as they continue to quickly build out data center capacity. The Cerebras section reads 'Cloud revenues up, losses gro' and is truncated in the available text.
- CoreWeave posted revenues of $2.575 billion for Q2 2026, up from $1.212 billion in Q2 2025.
- CoreWeave posted a $49 million operating loss in Q2 2026, a swing from $19 million in operating income a year earlier; adjusted operating income was $128 million.
- CoreWeave posted a net loss of $626 million in Q2 2026, up from $290 million in the same quarter last year.
- CoreWeave's adjusted EBITDA for Q2 2026 was $1.51 billion, up from $752 million in Q2 2025.
Why it matters
CoreWeave, Nebius and Cerebras all reported Q2 2026 results this week, and according to DatacenterDynamics all three accelerated revenue while their losses grew, because all three are still building data center capacity as fast as they can finance it [1]. The useful signal is not the growth rate but the ratio of spending to revenue, which tells you that compute is being bought ahead of demand and that sellers, not buyers, still hold the pen on price.
CoreWeave's revenue was $2.575bn against $1.212bn a year earlier, up 112 percent [11][28]. Operating income went from $19m to a $49m loss, and net loss widened from $290m to $626m, roughly 2.2 times [12][13][29]. Adjusted EBITDA of $1.51bn is 59 percent of revenue [14][30]; the roughly $2.14bn gap between that figure and the net loss is what the adjustment leaves out, mostly the cost of owning the machines and the money borrowed to buy them [31]. Capex was $9.4bn in the quarter, about 3.6 times revenue, with $35bn to $39bn guided for the year [15][32].
The physical numbers say the same thing. CoreWeave added nearly 500MW to reach 1.5GW live across 51 data centers, holds 4.2GW of contracted power and targets 8GW by 2030 [16][17]. That leaves about 2.7GW committed but not yet energized [33]. Backlog was approximately $104bn at June 30, plus more than $25bn of net new commitments in early Q3 [18].
The clearest pricing tell came on the call: CoreWeave said it recently signed an A100 contract extending into 2029 at an "attractive price", for a GPU that launched in 2020 [19]. Six-year-old silicon holding price is not a statement about the chip. It is a statement about installed, energised capacity being the scarce good.
Nebius grew revenue 454 percent to $582.3m, with AI cloud up 514 percent to $575m [2][3]. Operating costs and expenses rose to $758.2m from $216.3m, which is $176m more than the quarter's revenue [20][34]. Adjusted net loss narrowed to $33.2m from $91.5m, while the net income line swung from a $584.4m profit to a $190.4m loss, mostly because last year's figure included gains on revaluing equity investments [4][5]. Capex was $5.7bn, above the $4.7bn analysts expected and close to ten times quarterly revenue, and the shares closed 34 percent higher [21][22][35]. Nebius says the payback period on that capex is one year and ten months, and that more than half its expenses are financed by customer prepayments [23]. Founder Arkady Volozh said Nebius closed four deals worth more than $1bn each at a yield of $20m to $25m per megawatt [6][7]; the counterparties named were Cohere, Reflection AI, an unnamed neocloud and a trading firm [8]. End-2026 contracted power guidance rose to 5GW [9], which at that yield implies $100bn to $125bn of annualised revenue if it is all built and sold [27].
Inference, the workload that would eventually justify the buildout, is still small. CoreWeave's managed inference went from $1m to more than $100m ARR and should exit 2026 at $250m or better [24]; Nebius said production inference workloads more than tripled [25]. Against a $104bn backlog, $100m of inference ARR is a tenth of a percent [36].
Watch three things: whether new contracts hold price as CoreWeave's 2.7GW and Nebius's planned 1GW a year from 2027 come online [17][10]; whether customers keep prepaying, since prepayment is the buyer conceding pricing power; and where the capacity lands, given Michael Intrator's argument that US data center moratoriums will change where infrastructure gets built rather than the demand for it [26]. Cerebras's detail was cut off in the material available here beyond the report that its cloud revenues rose and losses grew [1].
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence79
- Adoption82
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives74
- Confidence75
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
CoreWeave, Nebius and Cerebras posted Q2 2026 earnings in the same week; all three saw revenues accelerate as demand for AI services increased, and all three posted growing losses as they continue to quickly build out data center capacity. The Cerebras section reads 'Cloud revenues up, losses gro' and is truncated in the available text.
- [2]
Nebius Group posted revenues of $582.3 million for Q2 2026, a 454 percent increase on Q2 2025, about $10 million ahead of the LSEG consensus estimate.
- [3]
Nebius AI cloud revenue grew 514 percent year on year to $575 million, accounting for almost all group revenue.
- [4]
Nebius adjusted net losses fell from $91.5 million to $33.2 million, a 64 percent year-on-year decrease, equal to an adjusted loss of 12 cents per share versus the 67 cents analysts expected.
- [5]
Nebius net income went from $584.4 million in Q2 2025 to a $190.4 million loss in Q2 2026, though much of the 2025 figure was gains from a revaluation of investments in equity securities.
- [6]
Nebius founder and CEO Arkady Volozh said the company closed four deals valued at more than $1 billion each in the quarter.
- [7]
Volozh said the four billion-dollar-plus deals were struck at a yield of $20-25 million per megawatt.
- [8]
Nebius signed one of the four deals with Cohere Inc. and the other three with startup Reflection AI Inc., an unnamed neocloud operator and an investment trading firm; it had earlier signed cloud deals with Meta and Microsoft expected to be worth up to $46.4 billion.
- [9]
Nebius raised its 2026 contracted power target to 5GW, having contracted another 1GW during the quarter.
- [10]
Nebius plans to deploy more than 1GW of compute per year starting in 2027.
- [11]
CoreWeave posted revenues of $2.575 billion for Q2 2026, up from $1.212 billion in Q2 2025.
- [12]
CoreWeave posted a $49 million operating loss in Q2 2026, a swing from $19 million in operating income a year earlier; adjusted operating income was $128 million.
- [13]
CoreWeave posted a net loss of $626 million in Q2 2026, up from $290 million in the same quarter last year.
- [14]
CoreWeave's adjusted EBITDA for Q2 2026 was $1.51 billion, up from $752 million in Q2 2025.
- [15]
CoreWeave's capex in Q2 2026 totaled $9.4 billion, and total capex for the year is expected to reach $35-39 billion.
- [16]
CoreWeave expanded active power by nearly 500MW in the quarter, including 300MW in June, to reach 1.5GW across 51 active data centers; eight facilities were added in 2026 and it expects to end the year with 1.85GW live.
- [17]
CoreWeave has 4.2GW in contracted power and is targeting 8GW by 2030; its first self-build project is due to come online later this year.
- [18]
CoreWeave's revenue backlog was approximately $104 billion as of June 30, not including more than $25 billion of net new customer commitments added in early Q3.
- [19]
CoreWeave executives said demand for older Nvidia GPU generations remains solid, and that the company recently signed an A100 contract extending into 2029 at an 'attractive price' despite the A100 launching in 2020.
- [20]
Nebius total operating costs and expenses jumped from $216.3 million in Q2 2025 to $758.2 million in Q2 2026.
- [21]
Nebius capital expenditures jumped to $5.7 billion in the second quarter, against analyst forecasts of $4.7 billion.
- [22]
Nebius shares closed 34 percent higher on the day of the results.
- [23]
According to Nebius, its second-quarter capital expenditures have a payback period of one year and 10 months, and the company finances more than half its expenses with customer prepayments.
- [24]
CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said the managed inference platform grew from $1 million to more than $100 million ARR and that the company expects to exit 2026 with at least $250 million of managed inference ARR.
- [25]
Volozh said Nebius production inference workloads more than tripled in Q2.
- [26]
On US data center moratoriums, Intrator said: 'They're not going to impact the demand for this infrastructure. They are going to impact where this infrastructure gets built,' adding that operators must be collaborative with host communities.
- [27]
At $20-25 million per megawatt, 5GW of contracted power implies $100bn to $125bn of annualised revenue if fully built and sold.
- [28]
CoreWeave's Q2 revenue grew about 112 percent year on year.
- [29]
CoreWeave's net loss was about 2.2 times the year-earlier loss.
- [30]
CoreWeave's adjusted EBITDA equalled about 59 percent of Q2 revenue.
- [31]
The gap between CoreWeave's adjusted EBITDA and its reported net loss is about $2.14 billion.
- [32]
CoreWeave's Q2 capex was about 3.6 times its Q2 revenue.
- [33]
About 2.7GW of CoreWeave's contracted power is not yet live.
- [34]
Nebius operating costs and expenses exceeded quarterly revenue by about $176 million.
- [35]
Nebius Q2 capex was about 9.8 times Q2 revenue.
- [36]
CoreWeave's $100 million of managed inference ARR equals about 0.1 percent of its $104 billion backlog.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- datacenterdynamics.comNeocloud results Q2 2026: CoreWeave, Nebius, Cerebras
1 article · August 14, 2026
- siliconangle.comNebius shares jump 34% on continued AI infrastructure demand
1 article · August 12, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- AI Inference Demand
- Data Center Siting and Moratoriums
- AI Capex Financing Pressure
- Neocloud Economics
- AI Data Center Capacity Buildout