Nebius beats on revenue, trims its 2026 outlook and plans up to $45 billion in spending

Nebius reported on Nov. 12, 2026, third-quarter revenue of $980.8 million, up 571% from a year earlier, while trimming its 2026 revenue outlook and raising its spending plans.

Nebius grew revenue nearly sixfold and still got punished, because the AI cloud business is now judged on whether the buildings show up on time. The company that rents capacity learned the hard way that landlords miss deadlines too, so it's moving to its own sites and asking customers to prepay most of a $45 billion bill. "We do not see any risk" is a brave sentence in a week when the AI trade lost its most famous CEO.

Nebius reported third-quarter revenue of $980.8 million, up 571 percent from $146.1 million a year earlier. A 571 percent rise means this quarter came in at a little more than six and a half times the year-earlier quarter. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected $907.5 million, CNBC reported. Adjusted EBITDA was $465.8 million, against a $5.2 million loss a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA is profit before interest, taxes, and some charges the company strips out so quarters are easier to compare. The net loss from continuing operations narrowed to $37.5 million from $119.6 million. Continuing operations means the businesses Nebius still counts in the main totals. Those figures are in the Nov. 12 results release. The revenue beat against the $907.5 million estimate is CNBC's, citing LSEG.

The shareholder letter's wording on this year's sales is exact: "We now expect revenue at the low end of our $3.0-3.4 billion range." Founder and chief executive Arkady Volozh wrote that a portion of this year's revenue is moving into the first part of next year. For 2027 the letter expects revenue of $12 billion to $13 billion, "reflecting a conservative approach to the pace of our build-out," and pre-tax breakeven by the end of 2027. Pre-tax means before the company pays income tax. Reuters described the 2026 trim differently, as a new range of $3 billion to $3.2 billion, with the top end cut from $3.4 billion. That $3 billion to $3.2 billion band is Reuters's. The letter still prints the $3.0 billion to $3.4 billion range and points to the low end.

The cause is delays at third-party sites, the data centers Nebius rents rather than owns. The letter says some of that capacity expected this year is now scheduled for the first half of 2027, and that the contracts behind it remain in place. New Jersey is one of them. The letter says Nebius now expects to have delivered more than half of the capacity contracted there with Microsoft by the end of the year, with the remaining tranches, the later slices of that contract, scheduled for the second quarter of 2027. Volozh, as Reuters quoted him: "Delays are part of our industry right now. We are not immune...none of that capacity is canceled, some of it has shifted to 2027." He said all of Nebius's own sites under development are on track or ahead of schedule. Reuters also quoted him: "Going forward, most of the next gigawatt we are bringing online will be on our own sites." A gigawatt is a large unit of electric power, and here it is the company's shorthand for a very large block of computing capacity. The letter's own line is that the owned sites "are on time or ahead of schedule" and "will make up most of the gigawatts we bring to market in the future."

Spending is going up, not down. The letter now puts 2026 capital expenditure at about $27 billion, above the earlier range of $20 billion to $25 billion. Capital expenditure is money spent on buildings, chips, and other gear that lasts for years. For 2027 the letter anticipates $40 billion to $45 billion. FactSet's consensus for that 2027 bill was about $28.8 billion, CNBC reported, a FactSet figure of $28.77 billion. The letter says Nebius expects to cover 75 percent to 85 percent of 2027 spending with customer prepayments and asset-backed financing tied to existing contracts. A prepayment is cash a customer sends before the computers are ready. Asset-backed financing is borrowing against those contracts or the machines, rather than a blank loan on the whole company. Reuters said that financing sits on contracts with hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Meta. A hyperscaler is one of the giant cloud companies.

Chief financial officer Dado Alonso, as Reuters quoted him: "We have no doubt that this capacity will be sold. Clients are looking for capacity already for 2028, and prices for 2027 are going up. We do not see any risk." Shares fell about 16 percent on Thursday, Reuters and CNBC reported, on a day when AI stocks were already sliding and Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's chief executive. Nvidia is a Nebius backer, as those accounts describe it. Neither account prints a closing share price.

The picture is Nebius founder and chief executive Arkady Volozh speaking into a handheld microphone on stage in a dark sweater, with part of the Nebius logo behind him. The credit is Nebius.

In plain terms, Nebius sold $980.8 million of AI cloud service in the quarter, more than six times last year, and still cut the way it talks about 2026 because rented data centers are late. The shareholder letter puts this year's revenue at the low end of $3.0 billion to $3.4 billion. Reuters calls the new band $3 billion to $3.2 billion. The company wants to spend up to $45 billion in 2027, mostly covered by customers paying ahead, and says its own buildings are on time.