NVIDIA's Multi-Billion Bet on AI Cloud Company, CIO Realizes 100 Billion Won Stock Option Profit

Andrey Korolenko, Chief Infrastructure Officer (CIO) of AI cloud infrastructure provider Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS), exercised 500,000 stock options at $100 per share and immediately sold the same number of shares at $203.24 each on May 13, generating proceeds of approximately $101.6 million (around ₩140 billion). He conducted the transaction under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, and the options’ intrinsic gain is estimated at about $50 million (roughly ₩70 billion). Following the sale, Korolenko’s direct holdings fell from about 1 million shares to around 600,000 shares; however, at the sale price he still retains equity worth more than $100 million (approximately ₩170 billion), according to the company’s filings.

Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Mark Boroditsky likewise sold roughly 4,500 Class A common shares at about $217.55 each on May 15 under his Rule 10b5-1 plan, raising about $1 million (around ₩1 billion). His direct stake declined to the mid-30,000 share range.

Nebius, classified as a foreign private issuer under U.S. securities law, noted that these insider transactions are exempt from the short-swing profit provisions of Sections 16(b) and 16(c) of the Securities Exchange Act.

In its Q1 2026 results released May 13, Nebius reported revenue of $399.0 million—nearly eight times the $50.9 million recorded in the year-ago quarter—highlighting the sharp rise in AI infrastructure and cloud demand. In March, Nvidia announced a $2 billion strategic investment in Nebius. This year, Nebius has pursued aggressive M&A to expand its AI cloud platform, acquiring agentic search firm Tabilly for about $275 million and AI-chip optimization startup Eigen AI for approximately $615 million.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Nebius evolved from Yandex N.V., the Dutch holding company of Russia’s Yandex, after it divested its Russian assets in 2024 and refocused on AI infrastructure. Today, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker NBIS, Nebius operates large-scale GPU data centers and an AI cloud platform across Europe and the U.S., and oversees subsidiaries in autonomous driving, education, and bootcamps, strengthening its position in the global AI infrastructure market.