Nebius Revenue Rises 571% to $981 Million as It Forecasts $12-13 Billion for 2027

The quarter came in ahead of analysts' average forecast of $907.5 million, according to Reuters. The outlook for the current year was weaker. Nebius now expects 2026 revenue at the low end of its $3.0 billion to $3.4 billion range. In his shareholder letter, chief executive Arkady Volozh said some revenue is moving into early 2027 because third-party colocation capacity that was due this year will now arrive in the first half of next year. He said the underlying contracts are still in place.

Nebius is one of the largest of the neoclouds, the specialist providers that rent Nvidia-based computing to AI developers and large technology companies. Its results show how such providers are paying for an expensive build-out. Customers are agreeing to longer contracts at higher prices and paying much of the money upfront.

Prepayments Fund the Build

Prepayments on agreements signed in the third quarter covered more than 100% of the capital spending tied to them, up from 50% to 60% on second-quarter deals, the company said. Deferred revenue, which captures money received for services still to be delivered, rose to $9.41 billion at September 30 from $1.58 billion at the end of 2025. Nebius expects $10 billion of committed prepayments this year and $17 billion to $20 billion in 2027.

Spending is rising sharply. Nebius now expects capital expenditure of about $27 billion in 2026, above its earlier range of $20 billion to $25 billion, as it invests in capacity for next year, especially at sites it owns. It plans $40 billion to $45 billion in 2027 for more than 1 gigawatt of new capacity, and expects prepayments and asset-backed financing on existing investment-grade contracts to fund 75% to 85% of that. Purchases of property, equipment and intangible assets reached $7.3 billion in the third quarter alone.

"We prefer to build our own sites, which give us greater control over execution and better economics," Volozh wrote.

The company said it has more than 4 gigawatts of contracted power and aims for 5 gigawatts by the end of the year. It has signed more than $12 billion in contract value since the start of the third quarter, including multi-billion-dollar AI cloud agreements in early October and November. Microsoft is the customer for its New Jersey capacity. Nebius also cited agreements with Meta, and multi-year deals with Databricks, Datadog, Palantir and Snowflake.

Profit and Cash

Adjusted EBITDA was $465.8 million, a margin of about 47.5%, compared with a loss of $5.2 million a year earlier. The net loss from continuing operations narrowed to $37.5 million from $119.6 million. Nebius ended September with $7.43 billion in cash and cash equivalents, plus $1.22 billion of restricted cash.

"Demand remains exceptionally strong, and we have the right mechanisms in place to capture it," Volozh wrote.

The company is also changing how it reports progress. Annualised run-rate revenue reached $6.4 billion at the end of the third quarter, up from $3.0 billion at the end of June. That is short of the $7 billion to $9 billion it had targeted for December, and it now expects to pass $7 billion in February, about two months later than planned. After that, Nebius will stop giving guidance on run-rate revenue, which management said reflects only a single month. From 2027 it will guide on revenue, pre-tax earnings and capacity.