NBIS | The Real Reason Nebius Is WinningNebius Group N.V. Class ABATS:NBISmoonyptoNebius did not begin life as a traditional AI infrastructure company.. 🇷🇺 Yandex roots: Nebius was created after the 2024 breakup of Russian tech giant Yandex. Its Dutch listed parent sold the Russian business for $5.4 billion and retained a smaller portfolio of international assets, which eventually became Nebius ♻️ Public company reset: The company kept its Nasdaq listing, changed its name to Nebius Group, and brought Yandex co founder Arkady Volozh back as CEO ☁️ Pivot to AI infrastructure: Instead of rebuilding the broader internet business, Nebius focused its engineering expertise, cloud capabilities, and capital on creating a dedicated AI cloud platform AI Cloud generated $575 million in Q2 revenue, accounting for 98% of the company's total $582 million. Revenue jumped 454% year over year, while gross margin improved by 6 percentage points to 77%. Adjusted EBITDA reached $236 million, representing a 41% margin Nebius still reported a $176 million operating loss, but that number was heavily affected by $260 million in depreciation and amortization as the company brought billions of dollars of new infrastructure online What does it all mean? 💰 Pricing power is increasing: Four new AI cloud contracts averaged more than $1 billion in total contract value, with pricing of roughly $20 million to $25 million per megawatt. Shorter-term capacity can command as much as $40 million to $50 million per MW ⏱️ Payback periods are shrinking: Management expects the latest Q2 contracts to recover their associated CapEx and operating costs in around 22 months, compared with the previous estimate of two to three years 🏗️ The investment is massive: Nebius spent $5.7 billion on CapEx in Q2 alone, nearly 10 times its quarterly revenue. The company still expects total 2026 CapEx of $20 billion to $25 billion 🤝 Customers are helping fund the expansion: Nebius expects more than $9 billion in customer prepayments during 2026, which could cover roughly 50% to 60% of the related CapEx Nebius is spending at an extraordinary pace, but higher pricing, faster payback periods, and large customer prepayments are making each new megawatt increasingly attractive. In the long run, that improving capital efficiency could matter more than the headline 454% revenue growth.