Nebius, 3분기 계약 규모 120억 달러 체결... 자본지출 전액 충당 관측 Nebius는 3분기에 120억 달러(bn) 규모의 계약을 체결했으며, 이 계약들이 자본지출(capex)을 전액 충당하는 것으로 알려졌다. 회사는 또한 Microsoft 데이터센터 프로젝트의 지연을 공지했다.

Nebius contracts signed in Q3 2026 covered 100 percent of their associated capex, said CEO Arkady Volozh during today's earnings call.

Volozh immediately addressed recent chatter and market volatility in the AI infrastructure market: "Two questions are being asked of our whole industry: How fast can AI build-out happen, and who will pay for it? These are important questions. The way I think about it is simple. The demand for AI is real and substantial. Everything else, like building the capacity and financing it, is just a task. Tasks can be hard, but they can all be solved."

With this in mind, the company has increased customer prepayments for contracts signed this quarter, so that all capex associated with getting capacity up and running, from data center costs to hardware and networking equipment, is covered by the customer upfront. In Q2, prepayments covered between 50 and 60 percent of capex requirements.

"As a result, payback in Q3 shortened to one year and seven months from one year and ten months a quarter earlier. Our customers are paying more, they pay earlier, and they are committing for longer, and we are getting our capital back faster."

Total contract value signed in Q3 was $12 billion, and Nebius expects full-year prepayments to total $10 billion.

CFO Maria del Dado Alonso Sanchez noted that the company can also "tap into such facilities," such as the $775 million facility signed in July, through its asset-backed financing framework based on long-term customer agreements.

"We have over $40 billion in such similar commitment revenue and see this as a repeatable framework," she said. She added that strategies will adapt to market conditions: "If the terms in the capital market are not attractive, we can allocate more capacity to the long-term contracts. If, on the other hand, we have the availability to raise capital at attractive terms, we will be very opportunistic about it, and we will shift more of those allocations."

Group revenue was $980.8 million, up 571 percent year-on-year and up 68 percent from the prior quarter. Nebius AI Cloud revenue was $973.8 million, up 643 percent, and accounted for approximately 99 percent of group revenue. For the full year, Nebius expects revenue of between $3 billion and $3.2 billion.

The net loss for the quarter was $37.5 million, down from a loss of $119.6 million a year earlier.

The company has said it expects to be "pre-tax profitable" in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Dado also told investors that Nebius expects its annual recurring revenue (ARR) to exceed $7 billion by February. However, the company will cease reporting ARR "as our business is scaling into the next phase." She said: "This metric does not reflect the full scope of our base. It is based on one month of the quarter, and we don't build our business around any one month. As we scale new partnerships, this revenue can add choppiness to ARR until such revenue ramps up."

Contracts signed in Q3 were priced at $25 million per megawatt.

Full-year revenue is lower than previous guidance suggested due to data center project delays. Volozh addressed this, telling investors: "Building at this scale is hard, and delays are part of our industry right now. We are not immune. For example, some of our colocation sites, including New Jersey, are behind schedule. Customers have been kept informed, and none of that capacity is canceled. Some of it has shifted to 2027. This means that a portion of this year's planned revenue moves into the start of next year. With our own sites, we remain on track and even ahead of schedule."

The specific project referenced is the Vineland data center being developed for Microsoft, where delays are related to power generation. Nebius had planned to use temporary generation provided by DataOne while Bloom generators were deployed. However, "in late Q3, DataOne decided to wind down the temporary generation faster than it was expected, so we are expediting the Bloom deployment as much as possible, but we still will have a gap due to this situation," Volozh said. "Having said that, I just wanted to mention that we continue to deliver the new tranches to Microsoft throughout Q3, and we will continue to do so in November and December, together with the power delivery."

Microsoft has reportedly been rethinking its contracts with some neocloud providers. According to people familiar with the matter, the company is increasing oversight of some data center projects with Nebius, Iren, and Nscale, and is stepping away from those it deems "risky."

In recent weeks, Iren revealed that a data center project was delayed after Microsoft requested a change in networking infrastructure, which pushed back the timeline by one to two months. In the UK, Microsoft pulled out of Nscale's Loughton data center project after the UK grid was unable to provide a connection before the 2030s.

Capex for the quarter was $7.3 billion, with full-year spending expected to reach $27 billion. Contracted power will reach 5GW by year-end.

In 2027, Nebius anticipates capex will increase to $40–45 billion to bring another GW of capacity online, with 75 to 85 percent funded by prepayments and asset-backed financing.

At the time of writing, Nebius shares were down 18.48 percent.