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Scouting report · NBIS

Arkady Volozh

  • Founder, Executive Director & CEO, NBIS since 2024-08src

Founded Yandex, ran it 2000-2022; CEO of its successor Nebius since August 2024

—thin record

Not ranked yet

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance—1 beat · 0 met · 0 missed · 1 withdrawn — fewer than 4, not scored
Answers the question920 dodges in 3 answers on 2 calls
Capital allocation—company five-year record: neutral — inherited: the five-year record is mostly a predecessor's
Pay design—time only
Skin in the game—no holding or price on file
Age
62src
In the role
2 yr
Promises scored
2
Hit rate
50%
Dodges / 100 answers
0.0
Airtime on calls
19%
Every promise, oldest firstWB

What to weigh

Watch 5

  • Founder control. One holder controls the vote on every director (one-year terms), and the board uses the Controlled Company exemption for its nominating committee, which he chairs. The 20-F names him as the key person whose loss could disrupt operationssrc
  • Dissent is rising: 21,732,302 votes were cast against his re-election at the 2026 AGM, against 872,064 in 2025. His trust's Class B votes carry the result either waysrc
  • Sanctions history: under EU designation from June 2022 to March 2024, when it was lifted. It still carries reputational and regulatory risksrc
  • Individual pay is not disclosed. The 20-F gives only group totals: $5.9m of cash pay for eight senior managers including both executive directors in 2025, plus 6,350,000 options and 226,312 RSUs granted. Shareholders get no say-on-pay vote. Dutch statutory accounts, finalised 2026-07-08, may carry the individual figures but are not on EDGARsrc
  • The LASTAR Trust held 30,786,700 Class B shares at 2025-03-31 and 28,655,509 at 2026-03-31, 2,131,191 fewer. Neither 20-F says why. The FY2025 ownership table also misnumbers its footnotes: the LASTAR row points to Chernin's note, and the Vladimir Ivanov row's note describes the LASTAR trustsrc

In their favour 2

  • Turned down the 2025 premium-priced option award. COO Nave and co-founders Chernin and Korolenko each held 625,000 of those options vested or vesting within 60 days of 2026-03-31src
  • The only Form 4 sales since Section 16 reporting began in March 2026 are automatic sell-to-cover trades on RSU vesting, which the filings mark as non-discretionarysrc

Career

  1. 2024 – now
    Nebius Group N.V. (formerly Yandex N.V.)src
    Executive Director & CEO
    Appointed August 2024, after the July 2024 divestment of all the group's Russian businesses (20F-2024)
  2. 2022 – 2024
    None (out of office)src
    No board or executive role; designated under EU and Swiss sanctions
    Designated under EU sanctions on 2022-06-03 and resigned all Yandex positions with immediate effect (20F-2022); the EU and Swiss designations were removed in March 2024 (20F-2023). While designated he undertook not to instruct the trustee how to vote the family trust's Class B shares
  3. 2000 – 2022
    Yandex N.V.src
    Principal founder, Executive Director & CEO
    CEO and director since 2000 per the FY2021 20-F; stepped down June 2022

Not located: Before 2000: co-founded CompTek International (he was its CEO) and InfiNet Wireless, then moved to become CEO of Yandex (AGM-2025-N). No filing read dates those years, and none states his education year

Achievements

  • Principal founder of Yandex; CEO and executive director of the listed company from 2000 to June 2022src
  • Returned as CEO in August 2024 to run Nebius, the AI-infrastructure business left after the July 2024 divestment of the Russian operationssrc
  • Declined the premium-priced option award ($100 strike, up to 2,000,000 shares per executive) the board approved in 2025 for four senior executives including himsrc
  • Controls about 51.6% of the votes through the LASTAR family trust's 28,655,509 Class B shares (10 votes each), which makes Nebius a Nasdaq Controlled Companysrc
  • Per the NBIS dossier's S8 table he beat his end-2026 contracted-power target (more than 3 GW) two quarters early and raised it to 5 GW, but withdrew the first FY2026 capex guide within one quartersrc

Education

  • Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas, Degree Applied mathematicssrc

Background

  • Family Settlor of the LASTAR Trust (trustee Highvern Cayman Limited), whose beneficiaries include him or members of his family and which holds all his Class B sharessrc
  • Family The FY2025 20-F names one family relationship among directors and officers (Bunina and Chernin are married) and says there are no others, so none involving himsrc
  • Founder Founding shareholder and controlling holder: 51.62% of voting power and 11.33% of shares at 2026-03-31. Chairs the nominating and corporate governance committee, which the company says the Controlled Company exemption permitssrc
  • Regulatory Designated under EU sanctions on 2022-06-03 and stepped down from every Yandex board and executive role the same day. The EU and Swiss designations were removed in March 2024src
  • In the press In August 2023 he publicly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine as barbaric and said he shared responsibility for the country's actions. This came after criticism of how his personal website described himsrc
  • Investing Invested in and sat on the board of Face.com (sold to Facebook in 2012). Early investor in Getir. Former board member of Neurosteersrc

The promise ledger

2 scored · 0 open
ResultWhat was promisedWhere it is scoredHow
W WithdrawnFY2026 capex $16–20bnNBIS row 1said it
B BeatContracted power "more than 3 gigawatts" by end-2026NBIS row 2said it

Questions dodged

0.0 per 100 answers

None logged on the calls reviewed.

Calls reviewed

  • FY2026-Q1.roic.json — 0 answers, 17% of the words
  • FY2026-Q2.roic.json — 3 answers, 22% of the words

Sources

16
  1. Filing Nebius Group N.V. Form 20-F for FY2025, Items 6 and 7 (accession 0001104659-26-052948) · 2026-04-30
  2. Filing Nebius Group N.V. Form 20-F for FY2024, Item 6.B (accession 0001558370-25-005991) · 2025-04-30
  3. Filing Yandex N.V. Form 20-F for FY2023 (accession 0001558370-24-005891) · 2024-04-26
  4. Filing Yandex N.V. Form 20-F for FY2022 (accession 0001558370-23-006319) · 2023-04-20
  5. Filing Yandex N.V. Form 20-F for FY2021, Item 6.A (accession 0001558370-22-005654) · 2022-04-20
  6. Filing Nebius 6-K Ex-99.1, 2025 AGM notice, agenda and explanatory notes (0001104659-25-070330) · 2025-07-24
  7. Filing Nebius 6-K Ex-99.1, 2025 AGM results (0001104659-25-081649) · 2025-08-22
  8. Filing Nebius 6-K Ex-99.1, 2026 AGM results (0001104659-26-101076) · 2026-08-26
  9. Filing Form 3, Arkadiy Volozh (reporting CIK 2060780), first Section 16 filing (0001513845-26-000030) · 2026-03-18
  10. Filing Form 4, Arkadiy Volozh, sell-to-cover of 2026-04-01 (0001513845-26-000045) · 2026-04-02
  11. Filing Form 4, Arkadiy Volozh, sell-to-cover of 2026-07-01 (0001513845-26-000080) · 2026-07-06
  12. Filing Form 4, Arkadiy Volozh, RSU grant of 2026-09-01 (0001513845-26-000098) · 2026-09-03
  13. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 1513845 (FY2025 20-F, 0001104659-26-052948) · 2026-04-30
  14. Call transcript NBIS Q1 2026 earnings call (2026-05-13), ROIC.ai
  15. Call transcript NBIS Q2 2026 earnings call (2026-08-12), ROIC.ai
  16. Web search result WebSearch: Volozh condemns 'barbaric' invasion of Ukraine, August 2023 (The Bell; also CNN, Reuters via StreetInsider) · 2026-09-24