Nebius, the Amsterdam-based AI cloud company, has signed a $3.5 billion loan facility with Citi to build more data centers and buy GPUs.
The company announced the deal on Thursday. The facility is secured, meaning it is backed by collateral, and it runs for 364 days. Interest starts at the Term SOFR benchmark rate (a standard reference rate for dollar loans) plus 2.75% a year. That margin can rise to 3.50%. Nebius also said AI compute prices keep rising, which is the company's own read of its market.
The term is the detail worth lingering on. A 364-day facility is short, while the GPUs and buildings it pays for will be in service far longer. That mismatch means the debt comes due well before the hardware has earned its keep. Borrowing this way suggests Nebius expects demand to hold for at least the next 12 months, and that it can refinance or repay on a similar schedule.
The rising-prices claim also does some work for the borrower. If customers pay more for compute over time, each GPU bought today earns more against its cost, and a lender has an easier case to approve.
Nebius is not alone in financing its buildout with debt. CoreWeave, another company renting out GPU capacity, has also leaned heavily on borrowing. The open question is what happens to this model if compute prices flatten while a loan like this one is still outstanding.