Nebius Shares Surge After Fund Linked To Former OpenAI Researcher Buys Stake
AI infrastructure company Nebius Group saw its shares rise sharply in premarket trading on Thursday after an investment fund run by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner disclosed a major stake in the company.
Nebius shares climbed more than 10% before the opening bell, putting the stock on course for its highest opening level in more than two weeks.
Situational Awareness Becomes Largest Shareholder
The investment fund, named Situational Awareness, revealed it had acquired a 5.6% stake in Nebius.
Based on Wednesday’s market value, the holding was worth nearly $2.6 billion. The disclosure immediately boosted investor confidence in Nebius as competition intensifies across the artificial intelligence infrastructure sector.
Situational Awareness is managed by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI employee who previously worked on the company’s “Superalignment” team.
That group focused on ensuring advanced artificial intelligence systems remained aligned with human values and safety objectives. However, the team has since been disbanded.
Nebius Gains Investor Confidence In AI Infrastructure Race
The investment is widely seen as a strong endorsement of Nebius and its role in the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market.
Demand for AI computing power and supporting infrastructure has surged as technology companies continue investing heavily in artificial intelligence development.
Nebius has increasingly positioned itself as a major infrastructure provider capable of supporting large-scale AI operations.
The latest stake disclosure also arrives during a period of growing investor interest in companies tied to AI computing, cloud services and data-centre expansion.
Fund Assets Expand Rapidly
Situational Awareness reported managing assets worth $13.67 billion as of March 31.
That represented growth of approximately 148% compared with the end of 2025, reflecting rapid expansion in the fund’s size and influence within the technology investment sector.
The fund’s investment approach appears heavily focused on companies expected to benefit from the accelerating global AI boom.
Nebius Recently Reported Strong Revenue Growth
Earlier this month, Nebius reported a significant increase in quarterly revenue.
The company said revenue rose nearly eightfold compared with the same period a year earlier, highlighting strong demand for AI-related infrastructure services.
The latest market reaction suggests investors expect Nebius to continue benefiting from rising global spending on artificial intelligence computing capacity.
With inputs from Reuters