Nvidia to invest $2 billion in Nebius and help former Yandex build a global AI cloud

About the Deal

On March 11, 2026, Nvidia and Nebius announced an agreement combining investment and technological cooperation. Nvidia is purchasing warrants for $2 billion in Nebius shares, while Nebius itself gains the resources to accelerate data center construction and expand its Full-Stack AI Cloud platform. This is not merely financial support: the deal solidifies Nvidia's long-term interest in one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure providers outside of the traditional hyperscalers.

Under the terms of the deal, Nebius will issue warrants to purchase 21 million Class A shares—approximately 8.5% of the total equity. Each warrant grants the right to purchase one share at par value, and can be exercised at any time.

However, for the first six months after issuance, Nvidia will not be able to sell or pledge these shares without Nebius's consent. The company plans to direct the proceeds toward new data centers and scaling its cloud business.

What Nvidia Provides

The partnership spans nearly the entire AI stack—from infrastructure design to cluster operations and inference software layers. According to the companies' statements, Nvidia will also help Nebius accelerate the rollout of new platform generations and support the deployment of over 5 GW of capacity by the end of 2030. For the market, this signals that Nebius is viewed not as a typical GPU reseller, but as a strategic partner for building large-scale AI factories.

• AI factory design and technical deployment support
• Access to early-stage hardware and software samples
• Joint development of inference and agentic AI stacks
• Early adoption of the Rubin platform, Vera CPU, and BlueField systems
• GPU fleet monitoring and operational recommendations

"Nebius was built for AI from the beginning, rather than adapted from general-purpose cloud," stated

Arkady Volozhov.

For Nvidia, the deal logic is also clear. The company is not limiting itself to selling accelerators, but helping shape an ecosystem of cloud providers that will purchase its solutions for years to come. For Nebius, this means not only capital but also access to engineering expertise, earlier hardware access, and additional leverage in negotiations with major corporate clients. Essentially, the partner gains both capital and technological priority in a single transaction.

How Nebius Grew

Nebius is registered in the Netherlands and was formerly known as Yandex N.V.—the holding company that owned Russian Yandex.

After trading ceased on Nasdaq in 2022, the company underwent a major restructuring, and in 2024 sold its Russian assets to a group of investors for 475 billion rubles. Subsequently, the remaining international assets were consolidated under the Nebius brand, and Arkady Volozhov returned to lead the company. Later, Nasdaq trading in the company's shares resumed.

The new strategy is built around AI infrastructure. Nebius is deploying Nvidia-based data centers in the US, UK, and France, while simultaneously raising capital for growth. Previously, the company had already attracted $700 million from investors, including Nvidia, Accel, and Orbis Investments.

In 2025, Nebius also secured major contracts for AI capacity supply with Microsoft and Meta, and in 2026 agreed to purchase Tavily—a provider of agentic AI solutions.

What This Means

The deal demonstrates that the next stage of the AI race is unfolding not only at the model level but also at the infrastructure level. Nvidia is effectively betting $2 billion that independent AI clouds will be able to capture a significant share of the market from traditional providers. For Nebius, this is a chance to solidify its position as one of the most prominent players of the new wave—a company that sells not just compute power, but a complete stack for training, inference, and running AI products.