Nebius pares back 2026 revenue forecast on capacity delays, shares slump

Nov 12 : AI cloud company Nebius said on Thursday its 2026 revenue would come in at the low end of its previous forecast after delays in third-party capacity additions, while a higher spending outlook sent its shares down nearly 12 per cent premarket.

The drop reversed some of Wednesday's 15 per cent surge following strong results from neocloud rival CoreWeave, as investors weighed Nebius' higher capital spending plans and delays in bringing capacity online.

Nebius said some third-party capacity expected to come online this year has been pushed back to the first half of 2027, but added that the contracts behind the capacity were still in place.

Due to the delay, the Amsterdam-based company said it will hit its target of more than $7 billion in annual run-rate revenue about two months later than originally planned.

Still, the company hiked its full-year capital spending forecast to about $27 billion from the prior view of $20 billion to $25 billion. Analysts on average were expecting $22 billion in annual spending, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Nebius projected $40 billion to $45 billion in spending for the next year.

To assuage mounting investor concerns around financing risks at neoclouds, the company said about 75 per cent to 85 per cent of its 2027 spending will be covered by prepayments from customers and asset-backed financing of its existing contracts.

It expects $12 billion to $13 billion in sales for 2027 and said it would break even on a pre-tax basis by the end of next year.

The company reported revenue of $981 million for the quarter ended September 30, beating estimates of $907.5 million.

Nebius' results follow a strong showing from CoreWeave, which raised its annual revenue forecast on Tuesday and said it was targeting profitability on an adjusted basis in the first half of 2028.