TLDR: Nebius Group is strategically leveraging its significant equity stakes in high-growth tech ventures like ClickHouse and Toloka to fund its aggressive expansion into AI infrastructure. With ClickHouse valued at $6 billion and Toloka securing a $72 million funding round led by Jeff Bezos, Nebius is monetizing these non-core assets to fuel its core AI cloud platform, Nebius.AI, which saw a 385% revenue surge in Q1 2025 and targets $750 million to $1 billion in annualized revenue by year-end.
Amsterdam, October 17, 2025 – Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS), a technology company focused on building full-stack infrastructure for the global AI industry, is executing a distinctive strategy to finance its rapid AI expansion. The company is systematically monetizing its non-core equity stakes in high-growth tech ventures, notably ClickHouse and Toloka, to generate capital for its core AI cloud and GPU infrastructure business.
ClickHouse: A Strategic Asset for AI Analytics
Nebius holds a substantial 28% minority stake in ClickHouse, a real-time analytics database company now valued at approximately $6 billion. This stake, potentially worth around $1.68 billion, provides Nebius with access to a critical platform for the AI era, where fast data processing is paramount. By maintaining this minority interest, Nebius can benefit from ClickHouse’s growth—which includes over 2,000 customers like Tesla and Meta—without tying up significant operational capital. The appreciation of this asset creates a self-sustaining capital cycle, generating liquidity that can be channeled directly into Nebius’ AI data center pipeline.
Toloka: Powering AI Data Solutions with High-Profile Backing
Further bolstering its funding strategy, Nebius’ AI data platform, Toloka, recently secured a $72 million funding round in May 2025. This investment was notably led by Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions, with participation from Shopify’s CTO Mikhail Parakhin. Toloka plays a crucial role in providing high-quality training data for AI models, a fundamental requirement for advanced AI systems. The strategic investment is expected to enable Toloka to scale rapidly and enhance its focus on the rising global demand for AI data, particularly in the U.S. market. As a result of this funding round, Nebius has ceased to hold majority voting power in Toloka and will deconsolidate Toloka’s financial results from its statements starting in Q2 2025, shifting its role from operator to equity holder. This move reduces overhead while retaining significant economic upside.
Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius Group, commented on the Toloka investment: “Attracting world-class strategic investors like Jeff and Mikhail is a strong endorsement of the quality of Toloka’s business and leadership. As enthusiastic backers of Olga and the outstanding Toloka team since day one, we believe this is the best way for Toloka to accelerate its growth and capitalize on the enormous opportunities of the AI revolution. Nebius remains committed to Toloka’s long-term success, and we are excited to be part of what comes next.” Mikhail Parakhin, incoming Executive Chairman of Toloka, added, “Toloka’s unique approach to human-AI collaboration enables us to address the most pressing challenges in AI development today — ensuring systems are not only powerful but also reliable, safe, and aligned with human values.”
Aggressive AI Infrastructure Expansion
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Nebius’ core business, Nebius.AI, is an AI-centric cloud platform designed for intensive AI workloads, offering full-stack infrastructure including large-scale GPU clusters and developer tools. The company’s financial performance underscores its aggressive growth trajectory, with Q1 2025 revenue surging 385% year-over-year to $55.3 million. Despite operating at a loss (with a -234% margin in Q1), Nebius aims to achieve positive EBITDA by late 2025. The company has ambitious capital expenditure plans, projecting to spend over $1 billion by mid-2025, including expanding GPU capacity and building new data centers. Nebius targets an annualized run rate (ARR) of $750 million to $1 billion by the end of 2025, signaling exponential growth driven by the escalating demand for AI compute and infrastructure. The company also holds stakes in other ventures like Avride, an autonomous vehicle platform, further diversifying its portfolio of potential capital sources.
