AI cloud firm Nebius posts surge in capex on GPU, data center expenses
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Nebius during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
Feb 12 : Nebius Group reported a sharp rise in quarterly capital spending on Thursday, driven by purchases of artificial intelligence processors and growing data center investments, as the AI cloud firm rushes to secure capacity to meet soaring demand.
The Amsterdam-based company, which counts tech giants Microsoft and Meta among its customers, said it would continue to expand its data center footprint with nine new sites across the U.S., France, Israel and the UK.
Shares of the company, which surged more than 200 per cent last year, were volatile in early U.S. trading. They were last down about 2 per cent.
Nebius is one of the major so-called neocloud companies that offer hardware and cloud capacity as services to other tech firms. Its core business involves providing Nvidia processors and AI cloud infrastructure.
Along with its larger rival CoreWeave, Nebius has benefited from the relentless enterprise spending on AI over the past several years.
"Demand from enterprises and AI native customers continues to outpace supply, allowing us to sell future capacity well in advance ... We are very focused on investing resources to continue expanding our capabilities in 2026 both organically and through targeted acquisitions," Nebius CEO Arkady Volozh said in a letter to shareholders.
Capital expenditures ballooned to about $2.1 billion in the December quarter, compared with just $416 million in the prior year period.
The investments have helped Nebius secure more than 2 gigawatts (GW) of contracted power, well ahead of its projections. It now expects to have more than 3 GW of contracted power by year-end, up from its prior outlook of over 2.5 GW.
Nebius reported a more than six-fold surge in revenue to $227.7 million for the fourth quarter, but it still missed estimates of $246.1 million, according to data compiled by LSEG. Net loss widened to $249.6 million from $133.2 million a year earlier.
The company expects to end 2026 with an annualized revenue run-rate of $7 billion to $9 billion, compared with the $1.25 billion at the end of 2025.
