AI cloud firm Nebius eyes Asia expansion with $20b backlog

Nebius, an AI cloud infrastructure company listed on Nasdaq, said it will expand operations in the Asia-Pacific region and appointed John Haarer as general manager for Asia-Pacific and Japan to lead commercial growth.

Based in Singapore, Haarer will oversee Nebius’ business across Asia-Pacific markets including Japan, South Korea, and India.

Nebius reported 479% revenue growth in 2025 and a contract backlog exceeding US$20 billion, including AI infrastructure deals with Microsoft and Meta.

Nebius has US$3.7 billion in cash and targets US$7 billion–US$9 billion in annualized revenue by 2026.

The company said Haarer’s appointment marks a shift from initial market entry to full commercial expansion across Asia-Pacific.

🔗 Source: Nebius

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Nebius is entering an Asian market shaped by government strategy and regulation

Nebius is expanding into a region where AI infrastructure has become part of government strategy, with more than $150 billion in AI and data center capital announced, financed, or advanced in the second half of 2025 across Asia-Pacific 1.
India, Japan, and South Korea are rolling out national compute strategies that aim to position them as global AI hubs, not only as cloud customers 1.
The expansion also responds to a practical hurdle for enterprise buyers, since over 60% of Asia-Pacific enterprises say changing data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI regulations already disrupt IT operations 2.
Nebius can offer local AI cloud infrastructure that supports compliance with these rules, which IDC (a technology market research firm) calls “architectural imperatives” shaping choices in cloud investments, data governance, and AI deployment 2.

The AI infrastructure arms race now runs on money and electricity

Across the sector, data center space and power supply increasingly limit growth even while demand stays strong 3.
Spending plans set the pace, with Microsoft targeting more than $30 billion in capex (capital expenditures) for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 while CoreWeave (a GPU-focused cloud provider for AI workloads) projects $20 to $23 billion in 2025, far above Nebius’s $2 billion 2025 plan 4.
Financing is getting more complex, since Nebius plans to fund capital expenditure for its Microsoft agreement through deal cash flow plus debt backed by the contract 5.
This points to a phase where execution depends on balance sheet discipline plus access to scalable sites with ready power, which is pushing more growth toward well-funded infrastructure platforms 1.