Short Sellers Gain $6B Paper Profits on Neoclouds

Short sellers made about $6 billion in paper profits this month by betting against U.S. neocloud and data-center companies. Concerns that debt-financed AI expansion may be unsustainable drove a selloff in neocloud and data-center stocks. Short interest in CoreWeave, IREN, Nebius Group, Applied Digital and Core Scientific stood at roughly 20 percent to 26 percent of their free float, with about $17 billion of their shares sold short. CoreWeave shares fell nearly 30 percent, generating almost $1.7 billion in paper gains for those short the stock. Bearish bets on Nebius produced $2.94 billion in paper gains. Short positions in IREN and Applied Digital together gained more than $1.2 billion. CONTESTED: none found. The available record does not present conflicting accounts of the paper profit totals, short interest share, or the size of the CoreWeave decline.