Nebius Bets on Pricing Clout and Fuel Cells as $20 Billion Expansion Gathers Pace

Nebius raises AI-cloud tariffs 29%, plans $25B capex fueled by Bloom Energy fuel cells. Q1 revenue surged 684% to $399M. Wall Street split on stock upside.

Nebius is set to test its pricing power in the AI-cloud arena, announcing a 29% increase in on-demand tariffs and a 51% jump for spot capacity starting June 2026. The move signals the company's confidence that demand for specialized high-performance infrastructure will remain elevated, even as larger competitors sharpen their own offerings. Investors responded swiftly, sending shares 5% higher in premarket trading and nudging the stock closer to the fresh 52-week high of $233.73 it had recently touched.

The pricing decision arrives on the heels of blockbuster first-quarter results. Revenue surged 684% to $399 million, with the cloud-AI segment alone climbing 841% to $389.7 million. The company swung to a net profit of $621.2 million from a loss of $113.5 million a year earlier, while EBITDA margin improved to 32.5%. Management now expects full-year 2026 revenue between $3 billion and $3.4 billion, aiming for an EBITDA margin of 40%. To sustain that trajectory, Nebius has outlined capital expenditure of $20 billion to $25 billion, funded in part by agreements with large hyperscalers.

Central to that spending is an unconventional energy strategy. Nebius struck a 10-year deal with Bloom Energy for 328 megawatts of solid-oxide fuel cells, with a total contract value of up to $2.6 billion. The fuel cells will generate electricity on-site, sidestepping congested grid connections and lengthy permitting processes. The first US project is scheduled to go live this year, providing a key building block for expanding AI data-center capacity in an environment where power availability has become a critical bottleneck.

With that power solution in hand, Nebius is accelerating its build-out. The company has lifted its overall capacity target to 4 gigawatts, with a long-term goal of 5 gigawatts by 2030. For end-2026, active capacity is expected to reach between 800 megawatts and 1 gigawatt. A new data-center project in Pennsylvania will add 1.2 gigawatts. The company carries $9.3 billion in liquidity to finance the expansion.

The bullish plans are not without headwinds. Google is opening its Tensor Processing Units to external customers, including Meta and Anthropic, and has launched a $5 billion joint venture with Blackstone to build 500 megawatts of TPU capacity by 2027. That could compress margins for independent cloud providers like Nebius that have benefited from scarce specialized infrastructure. For now, though, demand remains robust enough to support higher pricing.

Wall Street is split on how much of this momentum is already reflected in the stock, which trades around $215 after pulling back from its high. Citigroup maintains a Buy rating with a street-high price target of $287, implying roughly 33% upside. Citizens JMP follows with a $270 target, and Seeking Alpha’s consensus gives a Strong Buy at $256.91. On the cautious side, DA Davidson raised its price target to $250 but downgraded the stock to Neutral, citing valuation risks following the post-earnings rally.

The real test for Nebius will come in two parts: whether it can enforce the higher prices starting in June and whether it can hit its capacity milestones. Success on both fronts would add significant credibility to the growth narrative; failure on either could bring renewed attention to the intensifying competitive landscape.