Nebius shares soar 49% in premarket trading on multi-billion AI infrastructure deal with Microsoft

Shares of Nebius Group, a company specializing in artificial intelligence infrastructure, experienced a remarkable surge in premarket trading on Tuesday. This surge followed the announcement of a significant partnership with tech giant Microsoft valued at an astonishing $19.4 billion. At 10:03 a.m. London time (05:03 a.m. E.T.), Nebius' stock soared by 49%, reflecting strong investor enthusiasm. The Amsterdam-based firm, which emerged from the Russian internet powerhouse Yandex in 2023, is set to provide essential cloud computing capabilities to support AI workloads through this multi-year agreement. The deal is projected to yield $17.4 billion for Nebius by 2031, and it underscores the company's role in supplying graphics processing units (GPUs) vital for training AI models. Additionally, Microsoft may explore further acquisition of computing resources as part of this collaboration. The positive news not only propelled Nebius shares, which rose 60% in extended trading on Monday, but also had a favorable impact on rival AI infrastructure company CoreWeave, whose shares climbed 6.6% in premarket trading. Investors are clearly reacting with optimism to the unfolding developments in the AI sector. This is an evolving story, and further updates are anticipated.