- Nebius surged premarket after hedge fund Situational Awareness disclosed a 5.6 per cent stake.
- Its stock rose 11 per cent in premarket trading.
- Situational Awareness is an investment fund set up by ex-OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenne
Nebius shares surged in premarket trade on Thursday after a new disclosure linked the Dutch cloud infrastructure company to a prominent artificial intelligence-focused hedge fund founded by a former OpenAI researcher.
The trigger came from a regulatory filing showing that Situational Awareness, an investment fund set up by ex-OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has built a sizeable position in the company. The fund currently holds 12.4 million Class A shares in Nebius, which translates into a 5.6 per cent ownership stake, according to the filing made public on Wednesday.
Situational Awareness is known for directing capital towards the underlying physical systems powering artificial intelligence, including high-performance computing, data centre capacity and energy-intensive infrastructure required to train and deploy large-scale models.
The fund reportedly manages assets worth billions and is positioned around the long-term expansion of AI compute demand.
Following the disclosure, Nebius saw renewed investor interest with its stock rising 11 per cent in premarket trading. The company has already been one of the stronger performers in the AI-linked infrastructure space this year, with its shares up 149 per cent so far in 2026.
The filing circulated across trading forums and social media, where it triggered a range of reactions.
One user on Stockwits wrote, “This is one of those moments where positioning meets narrative. AI infrastructure + neocloud exposure + high-conviction institutional move… and the market just runs with it. Whether you're bullish or skeptical, one thing is clear: this is a name the market is now forced to pay attention to.”
https://stocktwits.com/freedomtrader6/message/654562002
Another on X said, “Leopold just disclosed a 5.6% stake in $NBIS. The man who turned $225M into $5.5B keeps adding to his AI infrastructure book. Watching this one closely.”
Leopold just disclosed a 5.6% stake in $NBIS.
— Stoic Cap (@TheStoicCapital) May 27, 2026
The man who turned $225M into $5.5B keeps adding to his AI infrastructure book.
Watching this one closely. https://t.co/V9fISpJE3I
“What a pleasant surprise for $NBIS investors,” read another remark.
What a pleasant surprise for $NBIS investors. https://t.co/V9fISpJE3I
— Stoic Cap (@TheStoicCapital) May 28, 2026
Nebius has increasingly positioned itself as a significant AI compute provider in Europe. In March, Nebius announced a large-scale agreement with Meta valued at up to $27 billion under which it will deliver $12 billion in dedicated compute capacity along with as much as $15 billion in additional capacity over a five-year period.
The same month, the company further strengthened its AI push with a $2 billion investment from Nvidia where the two firms will collaborate across AI infrastructure deployment, fleet management, inference systems and AI factory design and support.
