By Reuters | Updated: October 18, 2024
Oct 17 (Reuters) – AI infrastructure firm Nebius Group (NBIS.O) said on Thursday its shares will resume Nasdaq trading on Monday after being halted following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
At that time, the stock traded under the ticker of Russian internet giant Yandex through its Amsterdam-based parent company.
In July, a Russian consortium finalized a $5.4 billion deal to acquire the Russia-based assets of Yandex, a move that marked the largest corporate exit since the invasion.
“We are pleased to have our shares trading again on Nasdaq, which opens a new chapter for our company as a publicly traded pure play in the fast-growing AI infrastructure space,” Nebius CEO Arkady Volozh said.
Other Russian companies were suspended and ultimately delisted from Nasdaq, but Nebius maintained a suspended listing during months of negotiations to secure an exit from Russia, provided it could decouple from Yandex.
Many of the same Western shareholders have stakes in Nebius, but the company has undergone a significant transformation.
Once valued at over $30 billion as Russia’s equivalent of Google, Nebius is now a fledgling European tech company focused on AI infrastructure, cloud services, and self-driving technology.
AI-FOCUSED
With its Russian ties severed, Nebius is strategically positioning itself to capitalize on the burgeoning AI market, founder and CEO Arkady Volozh told Reuters in July. Nebius plans to invest more than $1 billion by mid-2025.
“Our ambition is to build one of the world’s largest specialist AI infrastructure businesses. This requires access to technological expertise, graphics processing units (“GPUs”) and capital. These are exactly what we have”, Volozh said.
Nebius had annualized run-rate revenue of $120 million as of September 30, 2024, and it expects to be on track for $170 million to $190 million in annualized run-rate revenue by year end 2024, the statement said.
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@ Thomson Reuters 2024
