Nebius just announced its third major debt issue in a year to support its massive AI infrastructure expansion.

  • Nebius has reportedly joined talks for the acquisition of Israeli AI startup Decart AI alongside Nvidia, SpaceX, and Amazon.
  • Decart’s Optimization Stack boosts GPU inference throughput by up to eight times on the same hardware – potentially a major advantage for cloud companies.
  • NBIS stock and its retail sentiment dropped after the company announced the fresh debt issue on Wednesday. 

Nebius on Wednesday raised its debt offering to $5 billion from $4.5 billion. The third debt raise of more than $1 billion in a year, coupled with over $8 billion already on its balance sheet, gives the AI infrastructure company significant financial firepower to accelerate its ongoing expansion.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to expand data center capacity, ​invest in the company's full-stack AI cloud ​platform, and acquire GPUs and other key components needed ‌to ⁠support growth, Nebius said on Wednesday. 

Nebius Eyes Major AI Deal

Amid its expansion drive, rumors are swirling that Nebius has entered the race to acquire Israeli AI startup Decart AI. Israeli tech outlet CTech reported that SpaceX, Nvidia and Amazon are also in negotiations for a deal that could be worth $6 billion to $7 billion, following earlier reports that Anthropic is eyeing the company as well.

Decart AI builds real-time generative AI models and infrastructure, best known for Oasis, its AI-generated Minecraft-like game, and Mirage, which transforms live video using text prompts. 

The real prize is the custom Optimization Stack, which can reportedly boost GPU inference throughput by up to eight times on the same hardware – potentially a major advantage for cloud companies.

Nebius’ Growth March 

Nebius is a relatively new neocloud player that recently pivoted toward cloud computing and is now building capacity to fulfill its first set of major orders.

The Amsterdam, Netherlands-based company signed a five-year, $12 billion AI infrastructure deal with Meta Platforms and is targeting 800 MW to 1 GW of connected power by the end of 2026, with data center campuses across Missouri, Pennsylvania, Finland and the UK.

Amid massive demand for AI cloud capacity, neocloud stocks have surged. Nebius is up a staggering 218% year to date, while CoreWeave and IREN have gained 44% and 14%, respectively. Stocktwits recently published an explainer comparing the three neocloud stocks from an investment perspective.

Retail View On NBIS

NBIS stock declined 10% on Wednesday following the debt-raise announcement, as investors weighed the debt obligations against revenue projections. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment plunged to ‘bearish,’ although some traders remained optimistic.

“$NBIS Near-term dilution/hedging pressure is real, but fundamentally this gives NBIS billions in relatively cheap capital to build capacity when demand is already huge,” said one.

Another wrote: “$NBIS I was here the last two convertible notes offering and they dropped for a day but within a couple weeks was a 30% gain.”

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