Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) shares fell 10% in midday Wednesday trading, changing hands at $152.58, making it the steepest decliner among AI cloud names.
CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) followed close behind, dropping 9% to $61.53 as both companies led a sharp re-pricing of highly leveraged AI infrastructure borrowers.
NBIS stock is now down 43% over the past month, while CRWV stock has shed 36% over the same period, reflecting sustained pressure on the sector.
The catalyst is the credit market rather than earnings, with credit-default-swap costs on AI infrastructure borrowers surging as investors question whether the current capital expenditure boom can be financed at reasonable rates.
CoreWeave’s CDS topped roughly 855 basis points on Tuesday, implying a 50% five-year default probability on a widely used pricing model, a striking signal for a junk-rated company with negative free cash flow since 2022.
CoreWeave’s Q1 2026 results showed interest expense doubling to $536 million, with free cash flow coming in at negative $4.71 billion, deepening concerns about the company’s ability to service its debt load.
Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) is caught in the same downtrend, with its stock falling 2% to $117.29 and its CDS climbing above 215 basis points, up from roughly 145 at the end of last year.
Oracle is the largest non-financial borrower in the Bloomberg U.S. high-grade index, and its 2054 note yields have climbed to 7.8%, adding to a broader picture of tightening conditions for large-scale AI infrastructure financing.
Apollo economist Torsten Slok warned that rising all-in yields could force the AI capex cycle to “self-throttle,” with the 10-year Treasury yield sitting at 4.65% in the 98th percentile of its 12-month range.
The First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (NASDAQ: SKYY) edged up 0.59% to $138.71 even as its 3% CoreWeave weighting and 3.8% Oracle weighting created headwinds, suggesting the selloff is concentrated among leveraged buildout names rather than broad cloud software.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock slipped 3% to $191.59, with NVIDIA’s CDS also touching a new high, adding another layer of concern to sentiment across the AI infrastructure space.
A secondary pressure point involves insider selling, with CoreWeave co-founder Brian Venturo having sold approximately $734 million in Q2 2026 and CEO Michael Intrator selling approximately $447 million, alongside a roughly $407 million disposal by an NVIDIA director.
These transactions were executed under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans, consistent with routine wealth management, and the executives involved are reported to retain substantial stakes in their respective companies.
Market participants will be watching whether CDS spreads on Oracle, CoreWeave, and Nebius remain wide into the close, as persistent elevation would tighten the refinancing math and potentially compress equity multiples further.
Any fresh financing announcement from CoreWeave or Nebius could shape the tone heading into Thursday’s session, while whether SKYY holds positive territory will serve as a key indicator of whether the damage stays contained.
