Short Sellers Gain $6B Paper Profits on Neoclouds

Short sellers have made about $6 billion in paper profits this month betting against U.S. neocloud and data-center companies, as concerns that debt-financed AI expansion may be unsustainable drove a selloff. Short interest in CoreWeave, IREN, Nebius Group, Applied Digital and Core Scientific stood at roughly 20% to 26% of their free float, with about $17 billion of their shares sold short. CoreWeave’s shares fell nearly 30%, generating almost $1.7 billion in paper gains for short sellers; bearish bets on Nebius produced $2.94 billion, while IREN and Applied Digital shorts gained more than $1.2 billion combined.