Nebius (NBIS) Citi’s 2026 Global TMT Conference summary

Company positioning and strategy

• Positioned as a full-stack AI hyperscaler, building infrastructure from land acquisition to cloud and application layers, differentiating from bare metal GPU providers.

• Focused on building and operating large-scale data centers globally, with a target of 5 GW contracted capacity by 2030 and ambitions to build 1–2 GW per year.

• Diversifies construction across the US, Europe, Middle East, India, and Japan to mitigate regulatory and community opposition risks.

• Emphasizes openness and community engagement in data center development, aiming for transparency and local benefits.

• Sees the AI infrastructure market as a trillion-dollar opportunity, targeting a 5–10% global market share.

Market dynamics and pricing

• AI-driven demand for infrastructure is growing exponentially, far outpacing supply, leading to severe capacity shortages.

• Prices for GPU infrastructure have risen sharply, with short-term contracts reaching $40–$50 million per MW due to urgent demand.

• Introduced auction-based pricing systems to dynamically balance supply and demand, inspired by consumer internet and financial markets.

• Expects elevated pricing to persist for 18–24 months, depending on AI's value creation in real industries.

• Margins are significantly higher for full-stack offerings compared to bare metal services, with payback periods under two years.

Product and partnership developments

• Main business focus is mid-range customers needing thousands of GPUs for 1–3 years, while large contracts with major tech firms help finance expansion.

• Partnership with Palantir leverages full-stack infrastructure, enabling enterprise clients to retain data sovereignty and customize open models.

• Open model cycles allow enterprises to surpass universal models in domain-specific tasks, as demonstrated by recent Shopify results.

• Token Factory and other software services enable higher-margin sales and differentiation from commodity infrastructure providers.

• Product quality and breadth are prioritized to ensure competitiveness as the market matures and supply-demand balances.