'Russia’s Google’ exits the country — Yandex plans to triple its Nvidia GPU deployments

The Russian-founded tech giant Yandex has left Russia after finalizing one of the country’s most significant foreign corporate exits since the Russo-Ukraine war started. Reuters reports that Russian investors acquired the last of Yandex’s Russian assets, and the company has rebranded itself as the Dutch-based Nebius Group. The company is now working to triple its data center deployments of Nvidia chips.

The deal took around two years to complete and culminated in Russian investors paying $5.4 billion for the remaining 28% of Yandex NV (YNV) shares, which was still a bargain for the buyers. The Russian government demanded a discount of at least 50% on foreign asset sales.

The company claims its deployment in Finland is the most powerful commercially available supercomputer on the continent, but it plans to triple its footprint with new Nvidia GPUs to compete with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in the AI sphere.

"It's in Nvidia's interest to diversify their client base; they're interested in growing guys like us," Volozh told the Financial Times . "We've had a working relationship with them for years. They know and trust us," said the Yandex founder.

In 2022, the EU imposed restrictions on Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh over his alleged complicity in the Ukrainian invasion. Volozh later condemned the conflict, calling it barbaric, and the EU lifted the ban. It paved the way for Volozh to become CEO of Yandex again, now Nebius Group, in its new incarnation. Rebuilding the company in Amsterdam, Volozh will lead a team of 1,300 employees, primarily former Yandex staff.

The Yandex brand will be phased out by July 31. YNV chairman John Boynton expressed gratitude to the company’s employees, especially negotiations leader Vadim Marchuk. “All connections with Russia have now been severed,” he told Reuters.

Nebius Group plans to operate in four AI-centric businesses: cloud computing, data labeling, autonomous driving, and education technology. Yandex once dominated these businesses in Russia, so the company knows them well. Nebius has already begun collaborating to develop its EU cloud computing platform.

Nebius Group hopes the Russian exit will allow its Nasdaq listing to start trading again. Trading the company’s shares on the U.S.-based stock exchange has been suspended for over two years.

Edit 7/21/2024 3:10pm PT : Yandex was not previously banned from procuring Nvidia GPUs. We have corrected the text.