Nebius laid out plans to spend $40 billion to $45 billion on AI infrastructure in 2027 at its third-quarter earnings call on 12 November, far more than Wall Street had expected, TechCrunch reported. The company supplies AI computing capacity to large cloud customers and expects customer prepayments and loans backed by contracts to cover up to 85% of that spending. A delay at a Microsoft-contracted site in New Jersey has pushed some capacity delivery into 2027.
Key points
- Nebius plans $40 billion to $45 billion in 2027 capital spending, with customer prepayments and asset-backed financing expected to fund most of it.
- Just over half of the Microsoft capacity at the Vineland, New Jersey site is planned for delivery by the end of 2026. The rest is due in the second quarter of 2027.
- Nebius reduced its 2026 revenue forecast after delays at third-party data centres, despite third-quarter revenue of $981 million.
Prepayments underpin Nebius’s $45 billion plan
The spending plan depends heavily on payments received before capacity is delivered. Marc Boroditsky, Nebius’s chief revenue officer, said its Microsoft and Meta agreements brought significant prepayments well ahead of delivery. Nebius’s finance chief named both customers’ contracts as eligible for asset-backed financing. Boroditsky said prepayments on deals signed in the third quarter more than covered the cost of building the capacity attached to them.
Reuters reported that Nebius expects prepayments and asset-backed financing to cover roughly 75% to 85% of its 2027 investment. Its account put the company’s 2026 spending forecast at about $27 billion, up from an earlier $20 billion to $25 billion. Nebius ended the third quarter with $7.4 billion in cash.
An earlier AI Affairs report on CoreWeave covered its $3.7 billion in revenue and higher 2026 outlook. Nebius has also secured a $3.5 billion Citi facility for data centre expansion.
Vineland delivery moves into 2027
Nebius’s Microsoft contract is worth up to $19 billion. At the Vineland, New Jersey data centre, just over half of the capacity contracted by Microsoft is now planned for delivery by the end of 2026. The remainder is planned for the second quarter of 2027. Nebius’s chief product and infrastructure officer, Andrey Korolenko, attributed the delay to site operator DataOne winding down temporary electricity generation sooner than expected while the facility switches to Bloom Energy fuel cells.
DataOne was fined $1.1 million by New Jersey regulators over its use of natural gas generators without permits. Floodlight, an investigative publication, identified at least 45 generators operating at the site in August. Nebius’s summary of its Microsoft contract says Microsoft can terminate affected services after a grace period if delivery dates are missed and Nebius offers no alternative capacity. The agreement also provides for financial penalties on late delivery.
Nebius said Microsoft had taken part in planning the revised delivery. Microsoft has separately tightened oversight of third-party data centre providers and declined an expansion of its Nscale agreement in Texas, as AI Affairs previously reported. Nebius says its own data centres under development are on schedule or ahead of schedule and will supply most of its new capacity from 2027.
Nebius cuts its 2026 revenue outlook
Nebius reported third-quarter revenue of $981 million, up 571% from a year earlier. Roughly a third came from a one-time payment associated with a new partnership model. The company cut its 2026 revenue forecast by $200 million to $3 billion because of delays at third-party sites, including New Jersey, TechCrunch reported. Reuters put the revised forecast at $3 billion to $3.2 billion, against a previous upper end of $3.4 billion.
Nebius shares ended 12 November down 17%, TechCrunch reported. Reuters put the fall at 16%. Nebius forecast 2027 revenue at $12 billion to $13 billion and said it anticipated neither a profit nor a loss before tax by the final quarter of that year.
