Arkady Volozh
YANDEX → NEBIUS → GIGAWATTS
THE DEAL
Volozh built Russian-language search before the Russian web existed, ran Yandex for two decades, stepped out in 2022 — and returned at the head of Nebius, rebuilding the shell around GPU clouds.
AT A GLANCE
- EDUCATION
- Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas · Applied mathematicsNebius
THE ARCHIVE
History · cartoons · headlines
THE TIMELINE8 sourced events
THE YANDEX EXILE REBUILDING AN AI EMPIRE AS NEBIUS
Volozh built Russian-language search before the Russian web existed, ran Yandex for two decades, stepped out in 2022 — and returned at the head of Nebius, rebuilding the shell around GPU clouds. Microsoft and Meta have since booked billions in capacity.
1990
HE BUILDS SEARCH BEFORE THE RUSSIAN WEB EXISTS
Volozh and colleagues at Arkadia were building information-retrieval software years before Yandex became a company, including search systems for patents, classifiers, and Russian-language text.
SOURCES: Yandexfirst-party
1993
THE SEARCH ENGINE GETS A NAME: YANDEX
While Volozh and Ilya Segalovich were developing search technology at Arkadia, the project acquired the name Yandex. Arkadia later became part of CompTek, which incubated the search engine before the standalone Yandex company was registered.
SOURCES: Yandexfirst-party
2000
HE TAKES THE WHEEL AT YANDEX
Nebius's board biography says Volozh moved from CompTek International to become Yandex CEO and served as group chief executive and executive director from 2000 through 2022.
SOURCES: Nebiusfirst-party
2022
THE TWO-DECADE CEO RUN STOPS
Volozh left the group's chief-executive and executive-director roles in 2022, ending a run that had begun in 2000.
SOURCES: Nebiusfirst-party
Sep 25, 2024
HE RETURNS WITH A BILLION-DOLLAR EUROPEAN AI BUILDOUT
After resuming office in 2024 as founder and CEO of Nebius, Volozh announced plans to invest more than $1 billion in European AI infrastructure, including a new Paris GPU cluster.
Sep 8, 2025
MICROSOFT SIGNS THE NEW AI CLOUD TO A MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR DEAL
Nebius announced a multi-year agreement to deliver dedicated AI infrastructure capacity to Microsoft from a new New Jersey data center.
SOURCES: Nebiusfirst-party
Mar 3, 2026
NEBIUS GETS A 1.2-GIGAWATT MISSOURI AI FACTORY
Local approval cleared Nebius to proceed with an Independence, Missouri AI-factory campus with potential capacity of up to 1.2 GW.
SOURCES: Nebiusfirst-party
Mar 16, 2026
META BOOKS BILLIONS MORE OF NEBIUS CAPACITY
Nebius signed a five-year agreement to provide Meta $12 billion of dedicated AI capacity, with additional compute purchases potentially taking the commitment higher.
SOURCES: Nebiusfirst-party