DA Davidson Reverses Course on Nebius Target Cut in Just 1 Week. What Is Going On?

Rich Duprey

Tue, August 18, 2026 at 4:52 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Quick Read

Gil Luria reversed a 30% Nebius price target cut in just one week after Vineland, NJ approval eliminated a critical execution risk threatening $3 billion in 2026 revenue.
Vineland's 300 MW represents up to 37% of Nebius' entire 2026 connected-power target, making it central to honoring commitments from customers Microsoft and Meta.
Nebius' primary risk is not AI demand but converting over 3 GW of contracted power into operational, GPU-ready infrastructure fast enough to capture it.
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AI infrastructure stocks have become a strange corner of the market where a data center approval can matter almost as much as an earnings report. That makes sense when electricity and physical capacity are the scarce resources limiting how quickly companies can turn AI demand into revenue.

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Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) has been one of the clearest examples. The company expects to finish 2026 with 800 megawatts (MW) to 1 gigawatt (GW) of connected power, up from roughly 170 MW of active power at the end of 2025. That makes every major data center approval important -- and helps explain one of the more unusual Wall Street price target changes this year.

A Price Target Cut That Lasted Only One Week

DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria cut his Nebius price target from $250 to $175 last week while maintaining a Neutral rating. That represented a 30% reduction in his valuation. One week later, Luria reversed course and restored the $250 target.

The reason wasn't a new earnings report or a dramatic change in Nebius' financial guidance. It was Vineland, New Jersey.

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DA Davidson said the approval of the Vineland data center removed a "significant risk" for Nebius. He had initially expected there to be a delay with the project's approval by local authorities, but with that uncertainty now gone, Luria said the company could return to construction rather than become a "poster child" for data center delays.

That's a remarkable swing, but the underlying logic is easier to understand once investors look at what Vineland represents.

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One approval, a 30% swing, and a $3 billion revenue goal on the line—welcome to the high-stakes world of AI infrastructure execution. © 24/7 Wall St.

Vineland Is Huge Relative To Nebius

The Vineland project is planned for around 300 MW of capacity. Against Nebius' 800 MW to 1 GW year-end connected-power target, that single site represents 30% to 37.5% of the entire amount the company expects to have connected by the end of 2026.

Put differently, Vineland isn't just some random location on Nebius' data center map, but rather the heart of it, representing potentially more than one-third of this year's capacity target.

And capacity is the engine behind Nebius' financial ambitions. The company expects 2026 revenue of $3 billion to $3.4 billion and year-end annualized recurring revenue of $7 billion to $9 billion.

Nebius also isn't building capacity merely to admire the concrete. It has already signed major commitments with customers including Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), creating a path to monetize the infrastructure as it comes online.

That makes delays particularly painful. Every delayed megawatt is potentially delayed revenue.

The Bigger Investment Thesis Is Capacity

To put Luria's about-face into perspective, Nebius had already raised its contracted-power target above 3 GW for 2026, while maintaining the 800 MW-to-1 GW connected-power target. The distinction matters: contracted power is capacity secured for future use, while connected power is attached to completed infrastructure that can actually support GPU deployment.

That gap is where execution risk lives. CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), the closest publicly traded comparison, has pursued a similar strategy of locking up massive amounts of power and data-center capacity to serve hyperscaler customers. DA Davidson's latest note explicitly said the restored $250 target reflects a premium to comparable CoreWeave.

Granted, the $250 target doesn't mean Luria suddenly believes every risk has disappeared. He kept the Neutral rating because Nebius shares had already moved ahead of the Vineland hearing.

Key Takeaway

In short, DA Davidson's whipsaw isn't as irrational as it first appears. The firm wasn't changing its view of Nebius' entire business every seven days. It was repricing one critical execution risk -- and then removing it when Vineland received approval.

For investors, that's the more important lesson. A 300 MW project represents fully one-third of Nebius' 2026 connected-power goal. Getting Vineland approved therefore removes a bottleneck that could have impaired the company's ability to deliver its $3 billion to $3.4 billion revenue target.

Ultimately, the $250 target is less interesting than what it tells investors: Nebius' biggest risk isn't a lack of AI demand. It's converting enormous demand into powered, operational data centers fast enough to capture it. Vineland is a meaningful step in that direction.