LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - AI infrastructure firm Nebius

Group ( NBIS ) on Monday said it was raising $700 million in a

private placement from investors including Nvidia ( NVDA ),

Accel and some accounts managed by Orbis Investments.

Nebius ( NBIS ), which emerged in July following a $5.4 billion deal

to split the domestic and international assets of Russian

internet giant Yandex, is joining a drive to build the

infrastructure underpinning artificial intelligence.

Nebius ( NBIS ) was founded by Arkady Volozh, former founder and CEO

of Yandex. Trading in Nasdaq-listed Yandex was suspended soon

after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Nebius ( NBIS ) eventually

reviving the listing as part of the asset split.

Volozh said the $700 million financing would give Nebius ( NBIS )

additional firepower to build clusters of graphics processing

units (GPUs), cloud platforms and other tools for AI developers

faster and on a larger scale.

Nebius ( NBIS ) has so far committed to investing $1 billion by

mid-2025, but Volozh said the company could end up investing

more.

Nebius ( NBIS ) is leasing data centre space in Kansas City,

Missouri, and may expand further in the United States, where

more than half of the company's clients are based, Volozh told

reporters.

In a statement, Nebius ( NBIS ) said it would issue 33,333,334 Class

A shares at a $21 per share in the private placement,

representing an approximately 3% premium to the volume-weighted

average price of those shares since Nasdaq trading resumed.

Nebius ( NBIS ) said the financing was oversubscribed and raised its

annualised run-rate revenue by year-end 2025 to between $750

million and $1 billion, from $500 million at the lower end

previously.

Nebius ( NBIS ) also said that it would no longer pursue a share

buyback that was approved as the Russia split deal closed and

before Nasdaq trading resumed.

"Based on the strong level of investor engagement and

technical dynamics which we have observed following the

resumption of trading on Nasdaq, we believe that those

shareholders who may have wanted to exit have had an opportunity

to do so at a price higher than the maximum repurchase price

authorised by shareholders," Nebius Board Chairman John Boynton

said.