CoreWeave versus Nebius Group. Choosing which of the so-called neocloud stocks is the best play on the need for artificial-intelligence computing power has been a fierce debate, but William Blair analysts say both can be winners.

CoreWeave was the pioneer in the business of neoclouds-providing additional cloud-computing capacity for AI-and is still the largest by revenue. But in terms of market value, it has been outstripped by Nebius, which has nearly tripled in value this year coming into Wednesday's session.

The debate between the two tends to revolve around their respective balance sheets-CoreWeave remains larger than Nebius on an enterprise value basis due to its heavier debt load-and their respective pipelines. CoreWeave has a larger backlog of orders and a closer relationship with chip supplier Nvidia but also a more concentrated customer base.

William Blair analyst Jason Ader and his colleagues say don't worry about all that. They initiated CoreWeave and Nebius with Outperform ratings, with no price targets, in a research note on Wednesday.

Rather than obsessing over the details, the William Blair team focused on the big picture. They estimate global neocloud revenue will grow from around $25 billion in 2026 to between $200 billion and $300 billion by 2031. That's based on roughly 20 gigawatts of data-center capacity coming online in that time frame.

Skeptics such as veteran short seller Jim Chanos argue neoclouds are dependent on debt-fueled spending to meet a potentially temporary AI boom and are vulnerable to being cut off by the existing cloud-computing giants. But Ader and his colleagues argue neoclouds can use their strong hyperscaler contracts to transform otherwise sub-investment-grade corporate credit into investment-grade financing, lowering their cost of borrowing and gradually boosting returns.

Ader expects the current biggest players to be the winners, likely acquiring smaller neoclouds. And he thinks both companies will be able to broaden out their cloud-computing services, capturing a greater share of customer spending and making it harder to switch, while improving margins.

"CoreWeave offers unmatched scale, backlog, and demonstrated financing capability, while Nebius combines a stronger balance sheet with a differentiated cloud architecture and greater near-term upside from software and higher-layer AI services," Ader wrote.

CoreWeave shares were down 0.1% in premarket trading. Cathie Wood's ARK Invest-a prominent technology investor-bought 254,550 shares of CoreWeave on Tuesday, according to fund disclosures. Nebius shares were rising 2% in the premarket.