Nebius Revenue Up 571% to $980.8 Million, Yet Shares Drop 8%

By Marcus Bennett

Nebius posted third-quarter revenue of $980.8 million, a 571% jump from $146.1 million a year earlier, and still saw its shares fall about 8% in premarket trading. The reason is simple. Data center delays are pushing revenue into next year, and capital spending is climbing at a pace that unsettles investors.

The Nvidia-backed AI cloud company reported its results on the 12th, according to foreign news reports. The figure beat the Wall Street estimate of $907 million. It did not beat the market's patience.

What did the profit line show?

Profitability moved sharply in the right direction. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came to $465.8 million. A year earlier the company posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of $5.2 million. That is a swing of nearly half a billion dollars in twelve months.

The net loss narrowed too. Nebius lost $37.5 million in the quarter, down from $119.6 million a year earlier. Revenue is growing far faster than operating costs. On that measure, the business is scaling the way an infrastructure provider should.

Where is the money going?

Capital expenditures totaled about $7.3 billion in the quarter. That is a 664% jump from a year earlier. The money went into AI computing equipment, chiefly graphics processing units, and into data center expansion.

The spending is not the problem by itself. The problem is timing. Some data centers face delays in their start-up schedules. Nebius now expects full-year revenue at the low end of its forecast range of $3 billion to $3.4 billion. Revenue the company had originally expected in December will now arrive in February next year.

For a stock priced on growth, a slipped quarter of revenue is enough to trigger an 8% premarket decline. Market participants read the drop as concern about heavy capital spending and the delays, not about demand.

Who stands behind Nebius?

Nvidia invested $2 billion in Nebius in March. The two companies are building next-generation AI cloud infrastructure together. Nebius also supplies AI computing services to Microsoft and Meta. That customer list gives it a visible place in the AI buildout chain.

The results arrive at an awkward moment for its main backer. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang faces reports of an extramarital affair and allegations of ties to Chinese intelligence, and tension has spread through the AI industry over the claims. Against that backdrop, Nebius's numbers serve a wider purpose. Analysts are watching them as a gauge of whether the boom in AI infrastructure investment can be sustained.

What does this change for investors?

The core signal is mixed. Demand is real, revenue growth is extreme, and profitability has turned. But the model requires enormous upfront cash, and execution on data center timelines now directly moves the top line. A two-month slip in revenue recognition moved the stock 8%.

The next test comes early next year, when the delayed December revenue is due to land in February. If the data centers come online on the new schedule, the low-end guidance becomes conservative. If they slip again, the spending burden grows without matching income.