Nebius Raises Capex to $27 Billion as Capacity Delays Shift Revenue

Nebius Group on November 12, 2026 reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $980.8 million, up 571% year over year, and raised its 2026 capital-expenditure forecast to approximately $27 billion from $20 billion to $25 billion. The AI cloud company is investing in capacity for 2027, particularly owned sites, while delays at third-party facilities push some expected revenue into the first half of 2027.

Growth Meets Heavy Infrastructure Spending

Nebius AI Cloud generated $973.8 million, up 643% from a year earlier. Management attributed group growth to new capacity coming online and its asset-light model, which contributed approximately $325 million of non-recurring revenue during the initial phase of a rollout. Under that model, partners fund capacity using Nebius’s architecture and AI Cloud platform.

Group adjusted EBITDA, Nebius’s company-defined measure of core operating performance, reached $465.8 million, representing a 47% margin. GAAP operating income was $50.4 million, but Nebius posted a $37.5 million net loss from continuing operations. Interest expense of $112.5 million and a $49.5 million expense tied to convertible-note conversions help explain why operating profit did not become bottom-line income.

The cash demands were much larger. Purchases of property, equipment and intangible assets totaled $7.3 billion in the quarter, while operating activities used $273.0 million of cash. Management said the capital spending primarily covered GPUs and related hardware and data-center expansion.

Capacity Delays Reshape Guidance

For full-year 2026, Nebius expects revenue at the low end of its $3.0 billion to $3.4 billion range, while maintaining its adjusted EBITDA margin forecast at approximately 40%. The revenue-timing change reflects the third-party delays; the contracts behind that capacity remain in place.

The annualized run-rate revenue timetable also moved: the previous $7 billion to $9 billion target for December 2026 is now an expectation of more than $7 billion in February 2027, even before New Jersey reaches full capacity.

The New Jersey schedule shows where the slippage occurred. Nebius expects to deliver more than half of the capacity contracted with Microsoft by the end of 2026, with the remaining tranches scheduled for the second quarter of 2027. DataOne began retiring some temporary generation ahead of the move to permanent power, resetting the schedule. Bloom Energy (BE ) fuel-cell generation is online and scaling.

Prepayments Underpin the 2027 Buildout

Nebius’s initial 2027 outlook calls for revenue of $12 billion to $13 billion, capital expenditures of $40 billion to $45 billion and pre-tax breakeven in the fourth quarter of 2027. The breakeven target is calculated after financing costs and assumes a five-year depreciation life for compute equipment.

Nebius reported more than $12 billion of new total contract value since the start of the third quarter. Prepayments on third-quarter agreements covered more than 100% of associated capital expenditures, including data-center construction and networking, up from 50% to 60% in the second quarter of 2026.

Management expects customer prepayments and asset-backed financing against existing investment-grade customer contracts to fund 75% to 85% of 2027 capital expenditures. It also identified cash, strategic equity stakes, operating cash flow and opportunistic external capital as funding sources.

The results leave Nebius with a substantial execution test: bring delayed capacity online on the revised timetable and convert customer commitments into recurring revenue while operations are still using cash. Its 2027 targets depend on demand, delivery and the planned prepayment and contract-backed financing covering most of a much larger buildout.