Nvidia Drives $700 Million Investment in Nebius to Build AI Superpower in the US

AI infrastructure firm Nebius Group has secured $700 million in funding, led by Nvidia, to expand U.S. operations and accelerate GPU cluster development. The firm projects up to $1 billion in revenue by 2025, reshaping the global AI landscape.

Nvidia Leads $700 Million Investment in Nebius

A private placement of $700 million was announced on Monday by the artificial intelligence infrastructure company Nebius Group. Among the investors included were Accel, Nvidia, and certain accounts handled by Orbis Investments, Reuters shares.

A new player in the race to develop the infrastructure necessary for AI, Nebius formed in July as part of a $5.4 billion agreement to divide the local and foreign assets of Yandex, a Russian internet behemoth.

The ex-CEO and creator of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, is the man behind Nebius. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, trading in Yandex, which was listed on the Nasdaq, was temporarily halted. However, as part of the asset split, Nebius revived the listing.

Nebius Targets GPU Clusters and AI Growth

According to Volozh, the $700 million investment would allow Nebius to construct GPU clusters, cloud platforms, and other resources for artificial intelligence developers more rapidly and on a bigger scale.

Volozh stated that Nebius may wind up investing more than their $1 billion commitment by mid-2025.

More than half of Nebius's clients are located in the United States, thus the company may expand further there. Volozh informed reporters that the company is leasing data center space in Kansas City, Missouri.

Financing Oversubscription Boosts Revenue Forecasts

Per Yahoo Finance, approximately 3% above the volume-weighted average price of those shares since Nasdaq trading resumed, Nebius said in a statement that it would issue 33,333,334 Class A shares in the private placement at $21 per share.

The funding was oversubscribed, according to Nebius, and the company increased its yearly run-rate income from $500 million to $750 million to $1 billion by the end of 2025.

In addition, just before Nasdaq trading restarted after the Russia split deal concluded, Nebius announced that it would not be pursuing a share buyback that had been authorized.

Nebius Foregoes Buybacks Amid Strong Investor Demand

"Based on the strong level of investor engagement and technical dynamics which we have observed following the resumption of trading on Nasdaq, we believe that those shareholders who may have wanted to exit have had an opportunity to do so at a price higher than the maximum repurchase price authorised by shareholders," John Boynton, chairman of the Nebius Board, said.