Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) cleared a significant regulatory hurdle Monday night after the Vineland Planning Board voted to approve Phase 2 of its AI data center development in South Jersey.
The approval adds 600,000 square feet to the existing facility, which is already under construction in Vineland, New Jersey, as part of a major AI infrastructure campus developed by DataOne.
The project was originally approved as a roughly 300-megawatt facility before DataOne proposed a larger build-out that could reach 350 MW, triggering a review process that stalled over proposed amendments.
Vineland’s Planning Board had held up its approval amid public pushback over concerns including noise, water use, emissions, LNG storage, and the overall scale of the project.
The site carries significant strategic weight for Nebius because it is expected to supply capacity for the company’s multibillion-dollar cloud agreement with Microsoft.
The two companies agreed last year on a five-year contract initially valued at $17.4 billion, making the Vineland campus a central pillar of Nebius’ push to rapidly scale AI infrastructure across the United States.
Monday’s approval removes one of the largest execution risks tied to that contract, as a prolonged delay would have affected Nebius’ ability to bring capacity online for Microsoft on schedule.
Despite the positive development, NBIS shares slipped 2% in early premarket trading Tuesday, with broader market volatility linked to renewed attacks in the Strait of Hormuz weighing on sentiment.
The stock remained among the top trending names on Stocktwits, where retail sentiment dipped to “bullish” from “extremely bullish,” and at least one trader posted, “$NBIS This is going to rip higher today. Watch.”
The Vineland news landed as investors were already closely watching Nebius following a wave of analyst price-target increases and its best weekly rally since December 2024.
That momentum was driven by a strong second-quarter earnings report in which Nebius posted $582 million in revenue, up 454% from the prior year and ahead of Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $570 million.
Revenue tied to the company’s core AI cloud business increased sixfold to $575 million, underscoring the rapid pace at which Nebius is scaling its infrastructure business.
The company did report a loss of $0.68 per share in Q2, compared to earnings per share of $2.05 during the same period a year ago, reflecting heavy investment in capacity buildout.
