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Nebius raised its year-end contracted power target to 5GW and said its future capacity pipeline puts it among a small number of companies able to build more than 1GW of new capacity per year
In sum – what to know:
2027 capacity – Nebius says it could sell its entire 2027 capacity today, but is retaining some to serve shorter-term demand.
Pricing power – Short-duration capacity is being negotiated at $40 million-$50 million per MW, while a recent auction cleared 15% above Nebius’ previous high.
Capacity expansion – Nebius raised its year-end contracted power target to 5GW and plans to build more than 1GW of new capacity in 2027.
Neoclud provider Nebius is deliberately holding back some of its future AI infrastructure capacity despite saying it could sell its entire 2027 capacity today, as the company seeks to capture higher-value shorter-term demand.
The firm’s chief executive officer Arkady Volozh told a recent conference call with investors that the company had closed four major deals during the second quarter with Reflection, Cohere, a scale U.S. Neolab and a large U.S.-based quant trading firm. The deals averaged more than $1 billion each and carry yields of $20 million-$25 million per megawatt, with upfront payments covering 50%-60% of associated capex.
“Most importantly, we could sell today our entire 2027 capacity on these terms if we wanted to. We are not doing this. We see that we can achieve higher value by retaining some capacity to serve shorter-term and immediate client needs,” said Volozh.
Nebius has three types of customer deals, according to Volozh. Its core AI cloud business uses mid-term contracts of one to three years with AI companies. A second category covers shorter-duration capacity, typically for up to six months, for customers with immediate, time-bounded requirements.
For this shorter-term capacity, Nebius is negotiating deals in the $40 million-$50 million per MW range, and sometimes above that level. Volozh said one such deal had recently been signed.
Both types of deals are expected to come online later this year and therefore will not have a material effect on Nebius’ 2026 revenue guidance, but Volozh said they will affect revenue in 2027 and beyond.
The company is also using long-term contracts with investment-grade customers to help finance its infrastructure build-out. Volozh said a secured debt facility raised in July was backed by one of these deals and pointed to Nebius’ $40 billion contracted backlog.
Alongside its own and co-located sites, Nebius is developing an asset-light partnership model that it introduced during the quarter. Under the model, partners finance, build and operate facilities, while Nebius provides its full-stack platform and demand.
Volozh said the approach addresses two industry constraints: capital and capacity. Nebius provides value-added services on top of partners’ infrastructure, which he said generates high-margin revenue and requires minimum balance-sheet capital. “This model has the potential to unlock new capacity for us in 2027 and beyond,” he said.
Nebius is also increasing its capacity ambitions. The company raised its year-end contracted power target to 5GW and said its future capacity pipeline puts it among a small number of companies able to build more than 1GW of new capacity per year.
The company said its capacity expansion strategy is being driven by what it sees as continued demand from AI companies, agentic AI leaders, Neolabs and sophisticated enterprises. “The demand for what we’re building continues to be enormous, and we have the right business model to capture it,” Volozh said.
He added that Nebius’ approach gives it flexibility over when and to whom it sells capacity, the terms of those deals and how infrastructure is financed.
