Nebius's surge fuels THNQ's 46% year-to-date return

Nebius Group (NBIS) jumped 28% in five sessions after a second-quarter earnings beat, and by Aug. 13 it stood as the tenth-largest holding in the ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence ETF (THNQ). The stock's year-to-date gain has reached 179%. ETF Trends called the quarterly results a notable beat.

THNQ charges 68 basis points to track the ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence index. It holds companies deriving most of their revenue from AI, split into infrastructure or applications and services, then broken down further into areas like semiconductors, e-commerce, and automation. According to ETF Trends, the fund has returned 46% year-to-date and 62.7% over the last 12 months, per ETF Database data, beating the tech-equities category average in both windows.

Zeno Mercer, VettaFi's head of robotics and AI research, told ETF Trends: "Nebius is building AI-native cloud infrastructure that supports the path from model development to real-world deployment." He added that he and his team have long followed CEO Arkady Volozh and the leadership group back to their Yandex days, and that the engineering depth and full-stack approach position Nebius to become a major player in the AI economy. Mercer also pointed to Nebius's ventures in autonomous mobility, data infrastructure, and AI services as adjacent areas to watch.

ETF Trends describes Nebius as a key layer in AI infrastructure. The company runs AI cloud services, with a factory partnership with Nvidia a central example of how it enables AI use across other sectors, according to the report. The report also argues that a specialized fund like THNQ offers a well-researched route into AI infrastructure.

A tenth-largest holding with a 179% year-to-date gain can move a fund on its own. THNQ's 46% return shows how much a single multibagger can lift a portfolio. But the concentration that has helped THNQ's returns works in reverse on a sharp reversal.