Wall Street's AI mania is minting new battlegrounds, and few look more intriguing than Nebius Group NV (NASDAQ:NBIS) versus Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR). Both stocks are commanding nosebleed valuations, each promising to dominate a different layer of the AI stack.
- Track NBIS stock here.
The question for investors: does the real value sit in the physical backbone of AI, or in the applications that ride on top of it?
Infrastructure Vs. Applications
Nebius, spun out of Russian roots and now making its play in the U.S. markets, wants to become the ultimate infrastructure provider for the AI boom. Its model is straightforward -- build out massive GPU farms, expand data center capacity and secure energy supply to keep them humming.
In a world where NVIDIA Corp's (NASDAQ:NVDA) chips are scarce and every company from Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) to OpenAI is fighting for compute power, Nebius is pitching itself as the indispensable supplier.
Read Also: Nebius Is Nvidia’s Strategic Weapon--And Microsoft Just Took The Bait
Palantir, by contrast, has long staked its claim as the "AI operating system" for enterprises and governments. Its Foundry and Gotham platforms are embedding AI into workflows -- defense intelligence, health care planning and industrial optimization.
If Nebius is selling shovels in the AI gold rush, Palantir wants to own the maps, the pans, and maybe the mining rights themselves.
Valuations At Altitude
The catch is price. According to Benzinga Pro data, Nebius trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 105.1, while Palantir sits even higher at 135.8. These are stratospheric multiples -- investors are effectively valuing both companies as if a century of growth will materialize in the next decade.
The market is assigning different risks to each. Nebius could benefit immediately from red-hot GPU demand, especially as hyperscalers scramble to secure compute power. Palantir, meanwhile, must prove that its AI deployments stick, expand, and become indispensable across industries.
Both stories are compelling -- but neither has room for execution missteps.
Investor Takeaway
The AI race is not just about chips or apps -- it's about which layer of the stack captures enduring value. Nebius is betting infrastructure scarcity will keep margins fat, while Palantir is banking on its role as the AI brain for enterprises.
At 100x sales, both stocks are priced for perfection. For investors, it may not be a matter of who wins big, but who blinks first.
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Photos: Courtesy Nebius; Palantir, Shutterstock
