Nebius: Billions in Deals, Millions in Losses, and a Stock That Just Said "Nah." What the Hell is Going On?
Alright, folks, Nate Ryder here, and I gotta tell ya, some days I just stare at these headlines and wonder if I’m the only one who sees the damn circus. Nebius Group N.V. — a name that sounds like it belongs on a spaceship, or maybe a particularly aggressive brand of probiotic — just dropped some news that, on paper, should have sent their stock through the damn roof. We’re talking a new $3 billion, five-year AI infrastructure supply agreement with Meta Platforms, Nebius Reports Bigger Q3 Net Income Loss, Announces Meta AI Deal, Shares Fall - Investor's Business Daily. Meta! You know, Zuck’s metaverse money pit that’s always looking for a new shiny object to throw cash at.
You’d think a deal like that, following hot on the heels of a colossal $17.4 billion agreement with Microsoft back in September, would make Nebius the belle of the ball. I mean, two tech giants, billions in contracts, all for the white-hot AI infrastructure everyone’s tripping over themselves for. Sounds like a winning lottery ticket, right?
Wrong. So, so wrong. The market, in its infinite, often baffling wisdom, looked at this shiny new Meta deal and said, "Nah, we're good." Nebius shares promptly plunged over 7% on Tuesday, Nebius Stock Plunges 5% Despite Inking $3B AI Deal With Meta - Yahoo Finance. Seven percent! After announcing a multi-billion dollar partnership! What the hell is going on, indeed?
The "Mixed" Bag of Corporate BS
They called their third-quarter results "mixed." Let me translate "mixed" for you, straight from the corporate dictionary: "We missed big, but we really, really want you to focus on the one number that looked okay, even if it’s totally undermined by everything else."
Yeah, revenue jumped a whopping 355% year over year to $146.1 million. That's a big number, I’ll give 'em that. But guess what? Analysts, those perpetually optimistic cheerleaders, were expecting $155.7 million. That's nearly a $10 million miss, folks. In the high-stakes world of tech, a miss is a miss. It doesn’t matter if you got an A- instead of an A+, the market still sees the minus.
And then there’s the real kicker, the one that tells you everything you need to know about where this company’s head is at: their adjusted net loss widened to $100.4 million. One hundred million dollars! That's up from $39.7 million in the same period last year. Let’s be real, are we really supposed to believe that signing multi-billion dollar deals makes you more money when your losses are ballooning like a hot air balloon with a leak? Or are these just paper promises masking a deeper burn? It’s like watching a chef keep getting huge catering gigs, but every dish they actually serve is burnt to a crisp and costs them a fortune to replace.
Arkady Volozh, the founder and CEO, pipes up, saying capacity for the Meta contract will be deployed "over the next three months." Oh, "will be deployed." Future tense. Always future tense with these guys. They tell us "demand for Nebius' services has exceeded available supply." Convenient, ain't it? It’s the classic tech company excuse: "We're just too popular to keep up!" It almost sounds good, until you remember those widening losses. You'd think if demand was truly through the roof, they’d be printing money, not burning it.
The Market's Unfiltered Verdict
So, while analysts are still out there chirping about how these partnerships "strengthen Nebius' position in the rapidly expanding AI cloud sector," the market just gave a collective shrug and dumped the stock. And for once, I think the market actually had a point. It saw through the glitzy headlines and smelled the financial smoke.
This isn't just about a bad quarter. No, it's about a narrative that just ain't holding up under scrutiny. They want us to believe in the AI gold rush, but sometimes it feels like they're just selling shovels to each other, and offcourse... the ones actually digging are finding nothing but dirt. I can almost picture the suits in their sterile boardrooms, clinking champagne glasses over these massive contracts, completely oblivious to the red ticker flashing outside. Then again, maybe I'm the crazy one here for expecting a company signing multi-billion dollar deals to actually, you know, make money instead of lose more. It’s hard to tell these days.