Russian Billionaire Potanin Buys Stake in Cloud Firm Selectel as AI Push Grows
GeokHub
Contributing Writer
MOSCOW | Dec 29 (GeokHub) A joint venture controlled by Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin has acquired a 25% stake in cloud infrastructure provider Selectel, marking another step in Moscow’s drive to expand domestic artificial intelligence capabilities.
The stake was purchased by Catalytic People, a joint venture between Potanin’s holding company Interros and T-Technologies, owner of online lender T-Bank, according to a statement from T-Technologies on Monday.
The deal values Selectel at around 16 billion roubles ($206 million).
RUSSIA SEEKS HOME-GROWN AI CAPACITY
The investment comes as President Vladimir Putin urges Russian companies to accelerate development of home-grown AI technologies, arguing they are critical to national sovereignty amid sanctions and geopolitical tensions.
Putin has repeatedly called on major tech firms such as Sberbank and Yandex to narrow the gap with U.S. and Chinese competitors in artificial intelligence.
Potanin, who is also the chief executive and largest shareholder of metals giant Nornickel, has been expanding his footprint in Russia’s technology sector. Earlier this year, he acquired a 9.95% stake in Yandex, often described as “Russia’s Google.”
“I think that in the near future, at Norilsk Nickel and many other Russian companies, there will be a breakthrough in this area,” Potanin said in a television interview aired last week, referring to AI development.
STRATEGIC CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE
Interros is the largest shareholder in T-Technologies, holding a 41% stake. T-Technologies President Stanislav Bliznyuk said the investment would allow the company to tap Selectel’s extensive cloud infrastructure to support the development of AI-driven products.
Selectel has emerged as one of Russia’s key cloud service providers. Its revenue for the first nine months of 2025 rose 42% year-on-year to 13.5 billion roubles, according to T-Technologies.
As Western cloud providers remain largely absent from the Russian market, investments in domestic infrastructure firms such as Selectel are increasingly seen as central to the country’s digital and AI ambitions.
