Nebius Group’s third-quarter revenue jumped 571%, but there’s a very useful wrinkle in that eye-catching number: about one-third came from non-recurring revenue tied to an initial asset-light partnership rollout. Meanwhile, some data-center capacity is arriving later, pushing back part of the AI cloud company’s growth timetable.
That makes the November 12 report less a simple growth scoreboard and more a question of what kind of revenue arrived, when the next capacity becomes available, and how much cash the expansion needs. The servers may be getting smarter. The accounting still deserves a close read.
A big quarter, with two different revenue engines
Nebius reported third-quarter revenue of $980.8 million, up from $146.1 million a year earlier. Those are consolidated group figures for the three months ended September 30, not annual sales.
The shareholder letter adds the detail that changes how I’d read that growth: approximately $325 million was non-recurring revenue from the initial rollout of an asset-light partnership. Nebius enables its architecture and platform on capacity funded by partners, earning revenue from that work and as capacity comes online.
Partner-funded expansion could help Nebius grow without paying for every new facility itself. But initial rollout revenue and ongoing use of cloud capacity don’t tell us the same thing about the next quarter. Roughly one-third of this quarter’s revenue came from that disclosed item; subtracting it wouldn’t magically turn everything else into recurring revenue.
Management expects these partnership activities to become a more regular part of the business. So the useful question is how that mix develops, rather than treating the entire partnership business as a one-off that can never contribute again.
The capacity calendar has moved
Nebius now expects 2026 revenue at the low end of its existing $3 billion to $3.4 billion range. Its capital-spending outlook rises to approximately $27 billion, from $20 billion to $25 billion. That’s a less comfortable combination than faster revenue with an unchanged construction bill, although management maintained its approximately 40% adjusted EBITDA margin outlook for 2026.
The company also shifted its annualized revenue run-rate goal. It previously targeted $7 billion to $9 billion in December; it now expects to exceed $7 billion in February. That’s a changed threshold as well as a later date, not the identical range simply moved two months down the calendar. Annualizing a month’s revenue also isn’t the same as having already earned a year’s sales.
According to Nebius, some third-party capacity is moving into the first half of 2027. At its New Jersey project serving Microsoft, it expects more than half the contracted capacity delivered by year-end, with the remaining tranches in the second quarter of 2027.
There is an important counterweight: Nebius says the contracts remain in place and its owned-site projects are on schedule or ahead. The disclosed problem is the timing of capacity, not an announced cancellation of those contracts. Even so, a customer commitment can’t produce cloud usage on servers that aren’t ready.
Profit measures don’t pay the construction bill
The quarter produced $50.4 million of GAAP operating income, but a $37.5 million GAAP net loss. Adjusted EBITDA was positive $465.8 million. That non-GAAP measure excludes expenses including depreciation, interest and share-based compensation, so it shouldn’t be read as cash left over.
Actual operating cash flow was negative $273 million for the quarter. Purchases of property, equipment and intangible assets totaled about $7.3 billion. These are quarterly figures; the positive operating cash flow shown for the first nine months answers a different period’s question.
There’s another comparison detail worth keeping beside the profit numbers: Nebius now depreciates server and network equipment over five years, versus four before 2026. Spreading the same cost over a longer life generally lowers annual depreciation, all else equal. It doesn’t make the equipment cheaper to buy. Our guide to reading an earnings report explains why accounting earnings and cash flow need separate attention.