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Microsoft’s growing reliance on third-party data center operators has entered a new phase following a $19.4 billion deal with Nebius.
Nebius is one of several “neocloud” providers it has backed with a combined $33 billion in investment, and with this deal, Microsoft now has access to more than 100,000 of Nvidia’s newest GB300 chips.
Microsoft has generated billions by renting computing power to customers and aims to increase that figure to justify its expanding AI data center budget.Leasing compute to power AI ambitions
The deal is part of Microsoft’s broader effort to boost its AI capabilities and expand the computing power behind its growing ecosystem of AI tools without having to commit all of its own infrastructure.
This shows how Microsoft is managing its massive AI demand by renting capacity from others while reserving its own facilities for paying clients.
