In a remarkable transformation over just 18 months since the separation from Yandex, Arkady Volozh's international venture, Nebius, has emerged as a significant player in the global AI infrastructure market. By March 2026, Nebius achieved a valuation exceeding $30 billion, which is approximately one-third higher than the entire valuation of Yandex's Russian operations.
What products and services does Nebius offer? While Yandex aimed to create a consumer-focused ecosystem, Nebius is fully committed to the business-to-business (B2B) sector. Distinct from general-purpose cloud services offered by giants like Amazon or Google, Nebius specializes in "AI factories." The company has taken over an exceptionally efficient 25 MW data center located in Mäntsälä, Finland, which has already seen its capacity triple. Between 2024 and 2025, Nebius expanded its operations by establishing new clusters in countries including the U.S., France, Iceland, the UK, and Israel. By the end of 2030, the company intends to amplify its capacity from 170 MW to a staggering 5 GW, which is expected to be twice the total capacity of all AI centers in Russia.
What factors contributed to Nebius's success? At the heart of Nebius is the core team from Yandex, which has decades of experience in developing complex distributed systems. This exceptional engineering expertise is the company's most valuable asset. "When [ChatGPT emerged], we understood that our assets, our people, and our talent were ideally positioned for this new era," Volozh remarked. The partnership with Nvidia served as a pivotal moment for gaining international credibility. In late 2024, Nvidia invested $700 million into Volozh's enterprise, signaling to the market that Nebius was a trustworthy entity.
In September 2025, Microsoft entered into a monumental $19.4 billion agreement with Nebius to utilize its capacity for Azure AI in the U.S. Subsequently, in early March, a $27 billion contract was signed with Zuckerberg's company. Just earlier this month, Nvidia further invested an additional $2 billion in Nebius, enabling the company to gain early access to advanced chips like Blackwell and Vera Rubin, positioning Nebius at the leading edge of the AI sector.
What does the future hold for Nebius? In February 2026, Nebius announced plans to acquire the startup Tavily, which aims to integrate real-time search and fact-checking capabilities through AI models into its cloud platform. Additionally, through its subsidiary Avride, Nebius is working on a platform designed for training robots, which has already entered the commercial phase. Delivery robots are currently in operation in collaboration with Uber in the U.S. and Rakuten in Japan. This strategy reflects Nebius's ambition to evolve beyond pure infrastructure, as the company increasingly demonstrates its potential to transition from a successful startup to a formidable player in the global technology landscape.
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