Short sellers target new cloud stocks! Nebius (NBIS.US) and four other companies have been shorted by about $17 billion, with short sellers sitting on about $6 billion in floating profits this month.

Short sellers have profited from the October sell-off in AI infrastructure stocks, with bearish bets against five U.S. data center and "neocloud" companies generating about $6 billion in paper profits so far this month. The decline has intensified scrutiny of these companies' ability to borrow heavily to expand AI computing capacity. Data from ORTEX shows that CoreWeave (CRWV.US), IREN (IREN.US), Nebius Group (NBIS.US), Applied Digital (APLD.US), and Core Scientific (CORZ.US) have all attracted substantial short positions, accounting for roughly 20% to 26% of their free float. ORTEX said that about $17 billion worth of shares in these five companies combined have been sold short, while the cost of borrowing shares remains low for them. Within this group, Nebius (NBIS.US) delivered the largest monthly paper profit for short sellers this month, at $2.94 billion. However, these positions are still down $3.33 billion for the year, illustrating how quickly the trade has shifted. The company's short interest has risen to 20% of its free float, up from 15.4% at the start of 2026. CoreWeave (CRWV.US) has also become a major target. Its share price has fallen more than 35% this month, generating nearly $1.7 billion in paper profits for short sellers. Short interest currently stands at 23.7% of its free float, up from 19.6% in early October. Short sellers betting against IREN (IREN.US) and Applied Digital (APLD.US) have collectively gained more than $1.2 billion this month, while short positions in Core Scientific (CORZ.US) contributed another $115 million. Core Scientific's short interest stands at 23.1% of its free float.