Nebius Secures $3.5 Billion Financing from Citi, Accelerating AI Data Center Expansion
nashnova research
AI cloud provider Nebius secured a $3.5 billion credit facility from Citibank for data-center buildout and GPU procurement — arriving just as rival CoreWeave's bond slump triggered a selloff across the AI-infrastructure sector, making access to capital a survival test for this generation of neocloud players.
What are the terms of this deal?
The facility is $3.5 billion with a 364-day tenor — short-term working capital, not long-dated project finance.
The initial rate is SOFR + 2.75%. This means → all-in borrowing cost sits around 7%+ at current rates, which is not cheap.
In plain terms = Citi handed Nebius a one-year credit line — expensive, but fast to draw and flexible enough to cover both building data centers and stockpiling GPUs.
Why announce it right now?
Just last week, CoreWeave's bonds fell sharply, dragging down stocks across the AI-infrastructure sector.
Nebius and CoreWeave are routinely named together as the top AI-focused neocloud providers — startups that compete with AWS and Azure by specializing in GPU-heavy AI workloads.
This reflects a deliberate signal: we can still raise money. When the market is questioning AI-infrastructure credit, proving you have lender access is itself a competitive advantage.
What other funding levers does Nebius have?
COO Ophir Nave noted the company can also borrow against over $40 billion in long-term contracts with investment-grade clients including Microsoft and Meta.
This means → with big-name customer commitments backing it, Nebius can pitch a "predictable revenue" story to debt markets — Citi is not the only door.
The company added that customer prepayments and operating cash flow are additional funding sources.
How heavy is the existing debt load?
Nebius currently has roughly $10 billion in convertible notes outstanding — bonds that can convert into equity at a preset price.
Of that, $5.75 billion was issued just this August.
In plain terms = the company is borrowing continuously while burning cash to build capacity — $3.5 billion in new credit on top of $10 billion in existing convertibles is significant leverage. Whether it can outrun the interest bill depends on AI compute demand staying as explosive as projected.
市场有风险，内容仅供研究参考，不构成投资建议。