By Alexander Marrow

(Reuters) – Amsterdam-based Nebius Group closed 5.6% higher on Monday, recovering from huge early losses during its first trading since February 2022. This followed the AI infrastructure firm's Nasdaq listing, which was formerly held by Yandex (NASDAQ:NBIS), often dubbed "Russia's Google" (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

Trading had been suspended shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the stock trading under Yandex's ticker through its Amsterdam parent company. In July, Nebius emerged following a $5.4 billion deal to split Yandex's Russian and international assets.

The stock, last traded at $18.94 per share in February 2022, initially slumped 26% in pre-market trading but recovered all losses, gaining 5.6% to close at $20 per share.

Yandex once reached a market capitalization of over $30 billion, but with its revenue-generating businesses in online search, advertising, and ride-hailing siphoned off in Russia, Nebius is now targeting the growing AI cloud market.

With a free float of 78.1% mainly held by Western investors and funds, analysts, including Denis Buivolov of BCS' venture capital department, foresee high volatility in the initial days of trading.

In an analysis on Seeking Alpha, Buivolov estimated the company's value at $4.6 billion or $23 per share, based on comparisons with firms like CoreWeave, Lambda Labs, and Sacra.

Dr. Jan-Oliver Strych, an adviser to an invested family fund, suggested that the stock's value would depend on the liquidity shock from positive AI investor demand against impatient sellers.

Nebius, providing NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) GPUs and AI cloud services, anticipates substantial growth in these sectors in upcoming years.

The company forecasts revenue growth of three to four times by 2025, targeting $500-$700 million, while planning to spend between $600 million and $1.5 billion on capital expenditure to enhance data center capacity in Finland, France, and North America.