The fortune of Arkady Volozh, CEO of the AI infrastructure company Nebius, increased by $1 billion in just one day, Bloomberg calculated. This happened after Nebius' stock price soared by 50% thanks to a multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft. By relaunching the business under a new brand and focusing it on AI capabilities, the Yandex co-founder managed to win back investor interest. Now the company is preparing a $3 billion offering of new securities to finance the expansion of data centers and the purchase of equipment.

Details

According to Bloomberg estimates, the growth of Nebius shares on September 9 increased the fortune of its CEO Arkady Volozh by $1 billion: as a result, it reached $2.9 billion. Volozh owns a 13% stake in Nebius through a family trust. Since January, the price of this stake has almost tripled, the agency notes.

Nebius Group on Sept. 8 announced an agreement with Microsoft in the artificial intelligence infrastructure business for a value that could reach $19.4 billion, leading Nebius securities to rise 49% in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

In trading on September 10, quotations were declining immediately after the opening of trading, but quickly changed the trend and began to grow again by about 5%, having updated the record for the entire time of trading. On Wednesday, the company announced plans to place new securities totaling $3 billion. It is about the issue of Class A shares for $1 billion (with the possibility of increasing the volume of another $150 million), as well as convertible notes (convertible notes) for $2 billion with maturity in 2030 and 2032. The funds will be used to expand data centers, purchase equipment and general corporate needs.

Forbes Real-Time rating shows that on Wednesday Arkady Volozh's fortune was growing by $42 million and estimated at $3.4 billion. This rating is updated in real time depending on the quotes. The calculation methods of Bloomberg and Forbes may differ.

Context

The rise in capitalization was a comeback of sorts for Volozh, who previously headed Yandex, the Russian equivalent of Google, Bloomberg writes. Trading in shares of Yandex N.V., the Dutch holding company, was suspended on Nasdaq after the start of the full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In the same year, Volozh fell under EU sanctions and left the post of the head of the company he created. In 2024, the Russian business of Yandex N.V. was sold for $5.2 billion. EU sanctions against Volozh were lifted in March 2024.

Yandex N.V. was renamed Nebius after the deal in July 2024. At the same time, Volozh returned to management and turned the business towards providing infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

When Nebius shares were unfrozen in October, Volozh's stake was valued at about $630 million: the market doubted the business could gain a foothold in the competitive data center environment, Bloomberg added. Prior to the Microsoft deal, Nebius mainly worked with startups and small companies.

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

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