AI‑Cloud Firm Nebius Secures $3 Billion Deal with Meta Amid Explosive Revenue Growth

Amsterdam‑based cloud infrastructure specialist Nebius Group has announced a five‑year contract worth approximately US$3 billion with Meta Platforms, reflecting the surging demand for advanced computing power to support artificial intelligence workloads.

In its third quarter ended September, Nebius reported a revenue increase of 355 %, reaching US$146.1 million compared with the same period last year. Capital expenditures also jumped dramatically to US$955.5 million, up from US$172.1 million, driven by investment in GPUs, land, and power infrastructure.

Despite the revenue surge, shares dropped more than 3 % in early trading after the company reported a quarterly loss exceeding US$100 million, up from US$39.7 million in the previous year, as spending accelerated. Nebius’ market value grew to approximately US$27.61 billion.

This Meta deal is Nebius’ second major “hyperscaler” contract, following a roughly US$17.4 billion agreement with Microsoft announced in September. The company indicated that demand was so strong that the Meta contract’s size was limited by available capacity.

Nebius joins other firms catering to an insatiable AI demand that is challenging even established cloud providers such as Microsoft and Amazon. The company aims for an annualised revenue run‑rate of US$7–9 billion by the end of 2026, up from around US$551 million at the end of September.

Analysis / Impact:
This contract illustrates the intensifying AI‑infrastructure arms race. Companies like Meta increasingly rely on specialised providers for large-scale AI model deployment rather than traditional cloud services. Nebius’ focus on GPU-intensive “neocloud” infrastructure positions it as a strategic player in this emerging market.

The size of the deal, combined with the earlier Microsoft contract, highlights the scale of global demand for AI cloud services. The limitation imposed by capacity constraints indicates that supply is still catching up, pointing to further investment and expansion in compute infrastructure worldwide.

While revenue growth is remarkable, Nebius’ significant expenditures and operating losses underscore the high-risk, high-reward nature of the industry. Firms willing to invest heavily now could dominate the AI infrastructure market in the future, though profitability remains a key challenge.

For African tech ecosystems, particularly in Nigeria, the global AI supply chain presents opportunities. Infrastructure, data centres, and cloud services are increasingly in demand, and local providers could potentially scale to meet parts of this growing need, despite challenges related to power, connectivity, and talent.