Nebius Executives Take Centre Stage at Twin Conferences as Q1 Revenue Surges 684% and Funding Gap Looms

Nebius reports explosive Q1 growth with $399M revenue and $1.92B run rate, driven by Meta and Microsoft deals; however, massive $20-25B capex plan and insider stock sales raise concerns about valuation and funding.

Nebius management faces a pivotal moment this week with two high-profile appearances that could either cement its growth narrative or expose cracks in the business model. Co-founder and Chief Business Officer Roman Chernin is scheduled to deliver a fireside chat at the BofA Securities Global Technology Conference today at 22:20 CEST, while the company also showcases its physical AI ambitions at the IEEE ICRA robotics conference in Vienna from June 1–5. Investors are watching closely: the stock has been trading near all-time highs, but questions about valuation, insider selling, and a multibillion-dollar funding shortfall hang over the rally.

The first quarter of 2026 delivered jaw-dropping numbers. Total revenue hit $399 million, up 684% from roughly $51 million a year earlier, with the core AI Cloud segment alone surging 841% to about $390 million. Adjusted EBITDA swung to a positive $129.5 million from a loss of $53.7 million in the prior-year period, and net income from continuing operations reached $621 million compared with a loss of $104 million. By the end of March, the annualised revenue run rate stood at $1.92 billion — and management projects that figure will climb to between $7 billion and $9 billion by year-end 2026.

Behind that aggressive target lie two enormous anchor contracts: a $27 billion deal with Meta and a $19.4 billion agreement with Microsoft. Cloud capacity under those agreements is expected to begin rolling out in the second half of the year. But the cost of building that infrastructure is staggering. Nebius spent $2.47 billion on property, plant, equipment and intangible assets in the first quarter alone, and total operating expenses came in at $527 million, including $212 million in depreciation. The company plans to invest between $20 billion and $25 billion in 2026, yet still needs to secure an additional $4 billion to $5 billion — leaving the spectre of a capital increase hanging over the current share price.

Liquidity, for now, provides a buffer. Cash and equivalents stood at $9.3 billion at the end of March, up from $3.68 billion at year-end 2025. That war chest has already funded a major step in Pennsylvania, where Nebius has secured up to 1.2 gigawatts of power capacity and land for a new AI data centre complex. The company also unveiled the Physical AI Workbench on June 1, a developer platform that combines simulation, synthetic data generation and deployment workflows, and was named a key partner by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the same day. Nebius is integrating Nvidia’s Vera Rubin architecture and positioning its cloud infrastructure as the natural home for robotics workloads.

Yet for all the bullish signals, insider transactions tell a different story. CEO Arkadiy Volozh sold 33,358 shares in April at an average price of $103.73, trimming his stake by 3.7%. Director Elena Bunina unloaded 10,894 shares in May at $206.87 — more than half her holding. Over the past three months, insiders have collectively sold shares worth $123.5 million. The stock closed on June 2 at $271, just shy of its 52-week high of $274.80, with a low of $34.72 over the same period. Volume on the day was around 14 million shares.

Chernin’s BofA appearance is no routine update. After a quarter that catapulted both revenue and the cash balance, the market wants answers on concrete demand trends for AI cloud capacity, utilisation rates at existing data centres, and how Nebius plans to scale inference infrastructure without blowing up its cost base. A webcast replay will be posted on the company’s investor relations page.

The twin conferences — one focused on finance, the other on robotics — underscore Nebius’s dual strategy: convincing Wall Street its growth is sustainable while simultaneously courting the developer community building the next generation of autonomous systems. Whether the management can address the creeping doubts around insider selling and the funding gap will likely determine whether the stock holds its recent gains.