Investors are bracing for volatility as trading of Nebius Group, an AI infrastructure firm that spun off from Yandex, resumes on the Nasdaq on Monday. The Amsterdam-based company’s stock was previously suspended after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when it traded under Yandex’s ticker through its Amsterdam parent company.
Nebius emerged in July 2023 after a $5.4 billion deal that split Yandex’s Russian and international operations. Once valued at over $30 billion, Yandex saw its revenue-generating segments in search, advertising, and ride-hailing remain in Russia. Nebius, meanwhile, is focused on AI cloud services, marking a sharp shift in the company’s business model.
The stock last traded at $18.4 per share in early 2022. With a free float of 78.1%, mostly held by Western investors, significant price swings are expected in the first days of trading, according to Denis Buivolov, an investor in Nebius and head of research at BCS’s venture capital and pre-IPO division.
Buivolov valued Nebius at $4.6 billion, or approximately $23 per share, in an analysis for Seeking Alpha, comparing it to companies like CoreWeave, Lambda Labs, and Sacra.
Another investor, whose holding was once worth around $200,000, suggested they might buy more shares if prices dip sharply, as investors looking to exit may sell off their stakes quickly.
Dr. Jan-Oliver Strych, an adviser to his family’s fund, which invested in Nebius, said the stock price will depend on a balance between high demand from AI-focused investors and the potential impact of rapid sell-offs by others.
Nebius’s core business revolves around providing Nvidia GPUs and AI cloud services. The company is forecasting rapid growth, expecting its revenue to increase three- to four-fold by 2025, reaching $500 million to $700 million. The firm also plans to invest between $600 million and $1.5 billion to expand its data centers in Finland, France, and North America, according to a statement on Friday.
