Microsoft strikes $17.4B GPU deal with Nebius

Microsoft inks $17.4B cloud deal with Nebius for long-term access to high-speed ￰0￱ contract provides Microsoft with a guaranteed pipeline of computing power during sky-high demand for AI ￰1￱ contract includes a potential expansion that could raise its total value to $19.4 billion if Microsoft scales up and increases ￰2￱ flexibility allows the company to respond to rising AI demand ￰3￱ agreement represents a major long-term partnership between the two firms spanning five ￰4￱ note that it stands among the largest deals ever secured by an AI start-up and ranks as one of the most significant in the history of the AI ￰5￱ Microsoft, the deal highlights its resolve to stay at the forefront of the race to develop and apply artificial ￰6￱ Nebius, it is a watershed victory demonstrating its ascent as an international supplier at the forefront of AI ￰7￱ development comes as Microsoft beat Wall Street expectations, posting quarterly earnings of $3.65 per share and revenue of $76.44 billion, above the projected $73.89 ￰8￱ Intelligent Cloud unit brought in $29.88 billion, also surpassing ￰9￱ Microsoft’s fiscal year ends in June, this quarter closed out its FY2025 rather than the calendar year’s second ￰10￱ powers Microsoft’s AI growth Nebius will also grant Microsoft access to dedicated GPU clusters via a future data center it is building in Vineland, New ￰11￱ t iming of the deal is ￰12￱ companies race to develop and deploy generative AI, the demand for computing power has soared.

Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI requires huge infrastructure for training ever-bigger models and delivering AI services to its customers over ￰13￱ global supply chains are still in short supply. Nvidia, the leading maker of chips used in AI, can’t make things fast ￰14￱ shortfall has led big technology companies to seek alternative solutions for guaranteed ￰15￱ deal also ensures Microsoft gets a secure source of GPUs that don’t have to come through traditional ￰16￱ also means hardware bottlenecks won’t set back its AI research teams and enterprise ￰17￱ some extent, the agreement is also about strategic diversification, the experts ￰18￱ is mitigating the risks by not putting all of its trust in just Nvidia and a handful of hardware manufacturing ￰19￱ reduces risk and increases resilience in its infrastructure ￰20￱ said the move would provide a big lift to Microsoft in its battle with others in the race for so-called artificial intelligence ￰21￱ Web Services and Google Cloud also pour billions into AI data centers and custom ￰22￱ that they have added this GPU capacity, they can continue to differentiate themselves in the race to provide reliable and scalable AI services on the industry’s best infrastructure.

Finally, the collaboration sets Microsoft up to grow its Azure global AI footprint, while offering Nebius an opportunity to demonstrate its infrastructure at ￰23￱ fuels Nebius’s future Nebius, on the other hand, sees the deal as ￰24￱ Amsterdam company, spun out of the Russian tech company Yandex in 2024, is rapidly emerging as a player in the world of global AI ￰25￱ CEO Arkady Volozh said the agreement demonstrated the company’s ability to compete with established ￰26￱ was the first of several long-term deals planned with leading technology ￰27￱ intends to fund the new infrastructure underneath the deal through a combination of cash flow from the Microsoft deal and debt backed by the ￰28￱ firm is also considering other sources of funding to fuel ￰29￱ stock soared more than 60% in early trading on the ￰30￱ greeted the deal as indicating strong interest in Nebius’s AI cloud ￰31￱ contract also ensures Nebius of a steady revenue stream for ￰32￱ stability will let it grow its global footprint, invest in more data centers, and strengthen its cloud play for ￰33￱ seen where it ￰34￱ in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.