Nebius Reinforces ‘Second Wave’ Of The AI ETF Trade As Investors Look Beyond Nvidia Chips

The artificial intelligence (AI) ETF trade is increasingly broadening beyond semiconductor giants and hyperscalers. Investors are now broadening their focus beyond traditional AI semiconductor plays like Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) to companies that directly monetize surging AI demand through cloud infrastructure and compute services.

That shift came into sharper focus Wednesday after shares of Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) jumped more than 14% in early trading following explosive quarterly results fueled by soaring AI spending.

The move builds on a broader market rotation that has recently favored “AI monetizers” over pure “AI builders.” For the past few weeks, investors have been piling into Alphabet, Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) after it posted strong AI-driven cloud growth, pushing the Google parent to almost topple Nvidia’s crown of the world’s most valuable company. This testifies that Wall Street is increasingly rewarding firms capable of converting massive AI investments into scalable revenue streams rather than simply supplying chips and hardware.

The shift of sentiment is now spilling into ETFs tied to cloud computing, software, internet platforms and diversified AI exposure, indicating what some analysts are calling the “second wave” of the AI trade.

Read Also: Nvidia Dominated The First AI ETF Boom — Alphabet May Shape The Next

Nebius’ latest earnings added another layer to that narrative. The neocloud company reported first-quarter revenue of $399 million, up 684% year over year and above analyst estimates of $388.6 million.

In a shareholder letter, CEO Arkady Volozh said AI compute demand continues to “vastly exceed capacity” as enterprises move from experimentation to real-world deployment. Nebius also announced plans for a new AI factory in Pennsylvania after securing up to 1.2 gigawatts of power and land capacity, underscoring how the AI race is increasingly becoming tied to data-center expansion and electricity infrastructure.

ETFs Targeting The Next AI Infrastructure Winners

Nebius’ rally could renew attention on ETFs positioned around the broader AI infrastructure ecosystem rather than just mega-cap semiconductor leaders like NVIDIA.

Funds such as Global X Robotics and Artificial Intelligence ETF (NASDAQ:BOTZ), Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (NASDAQ:AIQ) and ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence ETF (NYSE:THNQ) offer diversified exposure to AI software, automation and infrastructure companies. While many of these funds may not yet have meaningful exposure to Nebius itself, the company’s sharp growth raises a broader institutional question: whether ETFs are underexposed to emerging AI infrastructure winners outside the mega-cap universe.

The Pennsylvania AI factory announcement also highlights another increasingly important AI trade — power demand. AI data centers require enormous electricity capacity, and Nebius securing 1.2 GW of power could bring additional focus to infrastructure and digital real-estate ETFs such as Pacer Data & Infrastructure RE (NYSE:SRVR) and First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Smart Grid Infra ETF (NASDAQ:GRID).

The shift suggests Wall Street may now be searching for the next layer of AI winners — firms positioned not just to build AI systems, but to monetize the growing global shortage of AI compute and power capacity.

NBIS Price Action: Nebius Group shares were up 14.30% at $204.72 at the time of publication on Wednesday. The stock is trading at a new 52-week high, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Photo: Shutterstock

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This article Nebius Reinforces ‘Second Wave’ Of The AI ETF Trade As Investors Look Beyond Nvidia Chips originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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