AI computing power arms race heats up! NVIDIA invests $2 billion in AI cloud company Nebius to jointly build an artificial intelligence data center

NVIDIA once again makes a move, investing $2 billion strategically to strengthen its presence in AI infrastructure.

On March 11, according to Bloomberg, NVIDIA will invest $2 billion in Dutch AI cloud computing company Nebius Group NV, and the two will jointly design, build, and operate AI data centers. Under the agreement, Nebius plans to deploy over 5 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems by the end of 2030 — enough to power approximately 3.8 million households at any given time.

Following this news, Nebius’s stock price rose nearly 15% in early U.S. trading on Wednesday, more than doubling its value over the past year. This partnership will focus on the “reasoning” domain, specifically the actual operation and service deployment after AI models are trained.

NVIDIA Accelerates “Cycle Investment,” Continually Flows to Chip Buyers

This investment in Nebius is the latest in NVIDIA’s recent series of aggressive moves. In January, NVIDIA announced a $2 billion investment in Nebius’s competitor CoreWeave Inc.; last month, it participated in OpenAI’s $30 billion funding round; and this week, it also took part in a $2 billion funding round for the UK cloud service provider Nscale.

A common feature of these investments is that the recipients are major buyers of NVIDIA chips. This model has drawn criticism, with some arguing that such “cycle investments” could contribute to inflating the AI bubble. Bloomberg previously reported that the financial interactions between OpenAI and NVIDIA are fueling the further inflation of the AI market valuation, which is already in the trillions of dollars.

Divesting from Russian operations and shifting to AI, then securing another $2 billion boost

Nebius was formerly the Dutch subsidiary of Russian internet giant Yandex. In 2024, the company sold Yandex’s Russian operations to a group of Russian investors for $5.2 billion, then rebranded as Nebius, transforming into an emerging cloud service provider focused on AI infrastructure.

Later that year, Nebius completed a $700 million funding round, with NVIDIA among the investors. According to company documents, as of December 2024, NVIDIA held approximately $33 million worth of Nebius shares. The new $2 billion investment will significantly increase NVIDIA’s strategic stake in the company.

Big Tech’s Competition: NVIDIA Invests Heavily to Support “New Cloud” Players

Nebius is one of the few emerging data center operators that has rapidly risen with the AI wave, focusing on providing customized computing infrastructure for AI model training and services like ChatGPT. These “new cloud” operators face competitive pressure from giants like Google (under Alphabet) and Amazon, which are developing their own AI acceleration chips to reduce reliance on NVIDIA products.

NVIDIA, through continuous financial investment, supports these emerging operators, reinforcing its core position in the AI computing supply chain. For investors, this model not only sustains NVIDIA’s demand side but also keeps market attention on its capital allocation logic.

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