Nebius shares jump ahead of Nasdaq 100 inclusion

Shares of Nebius Group surged in premarket trading Thursday, ahead of the company's scheduled entry into the Nasdaq-100 index next Monday. The stock traded at $292.79 as of 8:07 a.m. ET, up $4.23 from its Wednesday closing price of $280.91. The move follows a significant rally on Wednesday, during which the stock rose approximately 6% and reached an intraday high of $297.93.

Nebius, an AI-centric cloud infrastructure provider, will join the Nasdaq-100 before the market opens on June 22. The inclusion is expected to generate buying from passive funds and other investment vehicles that track the benchmark index, which comprises 100 large non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq. Over 200 products track the index, representing more than $800 billion in assets.

The company's recent momentum is also attributed to two key business developments. On June 16, Nebius announced it had completed its $643 million acquisition of Eigen AI, a deal first revealed on May 1. Eigen AI specializes in inference and model optimization software, which Nebius plans to integrate into its platform to enhance efficiency for customers seeking to maximize limited high-end computing chips.