Premium: Nebius's buildouts

Part 1 covered Nebius's origin, cloud focus, and whale deals thus far. Part 1.5 looked at their strengths across their infrastructure and software architectures. Now let's dig into their footprint, buildout efforts, and where they are going next.

• Due to their Russia-to-EU origins, Nebius started by building up capacity in the EU, then expanded into the US to follow the demand. [CoreWeave is doing the opposite geo shift.]
• As an EU-based company, Nebius has a huge focus on the sustainability of its power draw across its data center footprint.
• They have grown from 1 site to 7 sites over the past year, and have shifted from colo to leased build-to-suit over that time. From here, they look to press hardest on self-owned.
• Beneath the headlines, it seems their huge NJ buildout suffered a 2-month delay [longer than CoreWeave's headline-grabbing "few week" delay!]. This might explain the muted end of FY25, as that revenue boost from the Microsoft deal kicked in more slowly than initially planned.
• However, we should still expect a massive boost in revenue in Q4 as 3 new DCs and a big expansion came online across the quarter. Q4 will see new capacity from Israel, UK, and New Jersey sites now partially contributing. Their large Finland expansion (with brand-new GB300 NVL72 racks) has also come online.
• While the Microsoft contract began in early November (initial 50MW capacity delivered), remember that the CFO noted the revenue contribution really appears in Q126, and ramps up from there – especially in the 2H.
• But also, there is a second tranche due to be delivered to Nebius in Q4, and Microsoft in Q1. Don't be surprised if this slips by a few weeks, delivered at the start of Q1, and show up in revenue at the end of Q1.
• They are now exploring other buildout strategies to help move faster, including self-builds on greenfield sites. Like CoreWeave (who is just now moving this direction themselves), they will have to learn fast.
• Mgmt has hinted at multiple coming sites across both the EU & US across 2026 and beyond. I have found hints on several developing sites across Missouri, Alabama, Indiana, and Singapore – however, the big ones in the US are not likely to appear until 2027.