Highlights for the morning: Nebius' big AI deal with Microsoft, the Nikkei record and gold rallies

Arkady Volozh's Kazakh-born AI startup Nebius, co-founder of Yandex, signed a five-year, $19.4 billion contract with Microsoft. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index hit a record after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigned on expectations of new stimulus. Another artificial intelligence startup Cognition raised $400 million at a $10.2 billion valuation after buying Windsurf. On these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of September 9.

Nebius Group's shares jumped by almost 47% in extended trading in the United States, and at moments were up more than 60%, following news of an agreement with Microsoft to supply computing power for training AI models. The contract is for five years and is valued at $19.4 billion, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company, formerly known as Yandex NV, will supply capacity using its data center in New Jersey and is already considering options for accelerated growth.

Microsoft is stepping up its partnerships with outside providers to extend its cloud infrastructure to meet the needs of OpenAI and other customers. In recent months, the company has also struck multibillion-dollar deals with CoreWeave, and OpenAI signed a direct agreement with Google. CoreWeave shares added 5% in the Sept. 8 postmarket, while Microsoft was unchanged.

According to a Nebius statement, GPU shipments will be realized in tranches in 2024-2025, with the bulk of the contract valued at $17.4 billion with an option to expand by another $2 billion. The company is actively developing a presence in the U.S., having opened offices in San Francisco, Dallas and New York. The market capitalization of Nebius at the time of the deal was over $15bn.

Nikkei 225 index jumped by 1.2% to a new record after the announcement of the resignation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, but by the end of the day lost all the gained and began to decline, writes CNBC. Growth during the day was led by technology companies: shares of Advantest added 7.6%, Tokyo Electron - 3.6%, Renesas - 2.6%. Investors are betting on a new stimulus package from Ishiba's successor, with Julius Baer analysts forecasting the Nikkei to rise to 46,000 points within a year. The yen strengthened 0.1% against the dollar.

Asian markets were mostly trading in the plus on Tuesday. South Korea's Kospi index rose 0.9%, India's Nifty 50 rose 0.4%, while the Hang Seng reached its highest since 2021, adding 1.5%. Meanwhile, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite fell 1.7% after the unexpected resignation of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and the rupiah weakened 1.17%.

On Wall Street, indices closed September 8 in the green zone: Nasdaq Composite updated the historical maximum, adding 0.45%, S&P 500 rose by 0.21%, Dow Jones - by 0.25%. Broadcom (+3%), Nvidia (+0.8%), as well as Amazon and Microsoft contributed to the growth.

Cognition, a startup developed by AI programmer Devin, has announced the completion of a $400 million funding round at a valuation of $10.2 billion, Bloomberg writes. The company acquired Windsurf, formerly the subject of talks with OpenAI and Google, in July and has already doubled its annual recurring revenue since the deal.

The round was led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund with participation from Lux Capital, 8VC and Bain Capital Ventures. According to Cognition CEO Scott Wu, the company will continue to actively invest in Devin and Windsurf products, whose integration is already delivering tangible results for customers.

With Cognition, several AI startups have joined the "$10 billion club," including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Brett Taylor's Sierra, which was recently valued at $10 billion. Windsurf's new CEO Jeff Wang said customers will benefit from the tight integration of the two companies' products.

The price of gold rose to a new high above $3647 an ounce on Tuesday, continuing a rally on expectations of lower interest rates in the U.S., Bloomberg reported. Weak employment statistics reinforced forecasts of three rate cuts this year, including a possible one as early as next week's Fed meeting. Gold has risen nearly 40 percent in a year thanks to central bank buying, rising geopolitical tensions and concerns about Donald Trump's trade policies.

Analysts expect further growth: Goldman Sachs forecasts a price of up to $5000 per ounce in case of reallocation of part of investments from government bonds to gold. Demand is also supported by inflows into exchange-traded funds: on Monday they became the highest for three months after Jerome Powell's signals about readiness for policy easing.

As of Tuesday morning in Singapore, gold was trading at $3,645 an ounce, silver was unchanged and palladium and platinum were up. The Bloomberg Dollar Index remained stable.

- Japan's broad Topix index was falling 0.5 percent.

- The benchmark Nikkei 225 was down 0.3 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index rose 0.9%, while the Kosdaq small-company index added 0.5%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.7 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.1%, the Nasdaq 100 was adding 0.15% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.03%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor