Is Yandex Cloud profitable in 2026?

Yes. Yandex Cloud has been EBITDA-positive for four consecutive years and posted FY2025 revenue of 27.6 billion rubles, up 39% year over year, with 93% of that revenue coming from customers outside the Yandex group, per its March 2026 financial report.

Who is Yandex Cloud's biggest competitor?

Domestically, Selectel leads Russia's cloud market with roughly 50% web-detected share versus Yandex Cloud's 28% as of April 2026, per wmtips data. VK Cloud also undercuts on price by 15 to 20%. Foreign hyperscalers like AWS and Google Cloud are largely sanctioned out of Russia.

Could AI replace Yandex Cloud's business?

Unlikely soon. Yandex Cloud sells AI tools rather than being displaced by them: its AI Studio product grew ML/AI services revenue 160% year over year in H1 2025, and it integrated models like DeepSeek V3.2 in March 2026 to sell AI agents to enterprise clients.

Who owns Yandex Cloud?

Yandex Cloud is part of Yandex LLC, majority owned by a Russian investor consortium after Yandex N.V.'s Russia business divested in 2024 for about 5.3 to 5.4 billion dollars. Reported owners include Alexander Chachava (25%), Pavel Prass (15%), Lukoil (15%), and management (35%), per Wikipedia, July 2026.

Has Yandex Cloud had layoffs in 2026?

No Cloud-specific layoffs have been reported as of July 2026. Yandex Group is reportedly cutting up to 15% of staff at its separate Yandex Market e-commerce division as of July 2026, but this cut has not been confirmed to extend to the Cloud unit.

Is Yandex Cloud the same company as Nebius?

No. Nebius Group is the Amsterdam-based, NASDAQ-listed company formed from the 2024 divestment of Yandex N.V.'s international assets and has no ownership link to Yandex Cloud, which remains part of Russia-based Yandex LLC, per Wikipedia's Nebius Group entry, July 2026.

Telecom operators · subsidiary of Yandex LLC (majority-owned by Russian consortium: Alexander Chachava 25%, Pavel Prass 15%, Lukoil 15%, Alexander Ryazanov 10%, senior management 35%) · Russia

Yandex Cloud

cloud.yandex.com ↗

Russian cloud infrastructure provider serving businesses cut off from AWS, Azure, Google Cloud.

Losing its protection

Assessed 22 July 2026 · Evidence as of 22 July 2026

The structural protection is eroding.

On the recordSince 22 July 2026 · Checkable from August 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: H1 2026 revenue and customer metrics release, showing growth trend versus Selectel

The call

Yandex Cloud grows fast and stays profitable inside a market walled off by sanctions, but it trails Selectel at home and depends on chip access and political risk it cannot control.

Yandex Cloud rents computing power and storage to Russian companies and is actually making money while growing. Western companies like Amazon and Microsoft cannot easily compete there because of international sanctions, but Yandex faces a tougher problem: a Russian competitor named Selectel that already controls about half the market while Yandex has less than a third. The biggest question is whether new sanctions will target Yandex directly, which could cut off access to computer chips it needs and force customers to switch.

Why

AI pressure: None apparent. AI is feeding Yandex Cloud, not eating it: ML/AI services revenue grew 160% YoY in H1 2025. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.

Bigger players: Selectel. Selectel holds about 50% of Russia's web-detected cloud market versus Yandex Cloud's 28%, and the gap is not closing. Could a giant copy it? No, they are blocked.

What protects it. Sanctions keep AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud largely out of Russia, leaving the market to domestic players like Yandex and Selectel.

What would change this call

UK, US, or EU sanctions package directly names Yandex Cloud, following the June 2026 Yandex Bank designation. Would show the regulatory moat protecting Yandex Cloud from Western competitors is eroding for Yandex itself.
Yandex Cloud's H1 2026 revenue and customer growth figures, expected late July or August 2026. Would show whether growth is holding up or losing ground to Selectel.
Whether Yandex Market's July 2026 15% cost cuts extend to the Cloud unit in Q3/Q4 2026 reporting. Would show if group-level capital discipline is constraining Cloud's investment and growth.

Key numbers

FY2025 revenue ₽27.6B, up 39% YoY (2025-12-31)
Selectel leads Russian cloud market at ~50% share vs Yandex's 28% (2026-04-27)
ML/AI services revenue up 160% YoY in H1 2025 (2025-06-30)

Named risks

Direct Western sanctions designation of Yandex Cloud following June 2026 Yandex Bank precedent. Severity: high
Chip-supply sanctions delay or block the 12 billion ruble, 50% GPU capacity expansion planned for 2026. Severity: high
Selectel's market-share lead over Yandex Cloud widens further in the contested domestic market. Severity: medium
Group-level cost cuts seen at Yandex Market in July 2026 spread to the Cloud unit. Severity: medium
Ownership structure opacity creates capital-control and equity risk tied to Russian jurisdiction. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Selectel	losing to	Selectel holds ~50% web-detected Russia cloud share vs Yandex Cloud's 28% as of April 2026
VK Cloud	losing to	VK Cloud undercuts IaaS pricing by 15 to 20% per February 2026 market report
AWS	gaining on	AWS retains only minor residual footprint in Russia due to sanctions, per April 2026 wmtips data
SberCloud	contesting	SberCloud leverages banking relationships and parallel-imported NVIDIA GPUs per February 2026 report
Cloud.ru	contesting	Listed among trailing Russian cloud competitors in April 2026 wmtips market data

Questions people ask

Is Yandex Cloud profitable in 2026?: Yes. Yandex Cloud has been EBITDA-positive for four consecutive years and posted FY2025 revenue of 27.6 billion rubles, up 39% year over year, with 93% of that revenue coming from customers outside the Yandex group, per its March 2026 financial report.
Who is Yandex Cloud's biggest competitor?: Domestically, Selectel leads Russia's cloud market with roughly 50% web-detected share versus Yandex Cloud's 28% as of April 2026, per wmtips data. VK Cloud also undercuts on price by 15 to 20%. Foreign hyperscalers like AWS and Google Cloud are largely sanctioned out of Russia.
Could AI replace Yandex Cloud's business?: Unlikely soon. Yandex Cloud sells AI tools rather than being displaced by them: its AI Studio product grew ML/AI services revenue 160% year over year in H1 2025, and it integrated models like DeepSeek V3.2 in March 2026 to sell AI agents to enterprise clients.
Who owns Yandex Cloud?: Yandex Cloud is part of Yandex LLC, majority owned by a Russian investor consortium after Yandex N.V.'s Russia business divested in 2024 for about 5.3 to 5.4 billion dollars. Reported owners include Alexander Chachava (25%), Pavel Prass (15%), Lukoil (15%), and management (35%), per Wikipedia, July 2026.
Has Yandex Cloud had layoffs in 2026?: No Cloud-specific layoffs have been reported as of July 2026. Yandex Group is reportedly cutting up to 15% of staff at its separate Yandex Market e-commerce division as of July 2026, but this cut has not been confirmed to extend to the Cloud unit.
Is Yandex Cloud the same company as Nebius?: No. Nebius Group is the Amsterdam-based, NASDAQ-listed company formed from the 2024 divestment of Yandex N.V.'s international assets and has no ownership link to Yandex Cloud, which remains part of Russia-based Yandex LLC, per Wikipedia's Nebius Group entry, July 2026.

Timeline

2026-07-07Yandex Group reportedly plans up to 15% staff cuts at Yandex Market e-commerce unit
2026-06-16UK sanctions Yandex Bank as part of wider Russia sanctions package
2026-05-12Finland fines Yandex subsidiary MLU B.V. 100 million euros over Yango data transfers to Russia
2026-04-27Web-detection data shows Yandex Cloud at 28% share of Russian cloud market vs Selectel 50%
2026-03-12Yandex Cloud reports FY2025 revenue of 27.6 billion rubles, up 39% YoY
2026-03-05Yandex Cloud launches Stackland PaaS platform and rebrands as universal IT platform
2026-02-24Yandex AI Studio adds Code Interpreter tool
2025-10-01Yandex commits 12 billion rubles to expand GPU capacity 50% for 2026
2025-08-01Yandex reports H1 2025 B2B Tech revenue of about 21 billion rubles, up 53% YoY
2024-07-31Yandex N.V. completes divestment of Russian assets for about 5.3 to 5.4 billion dollars

Revision history

22 July 2026

First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

In the same band

Super Micro Computer PCCW Global (Console Connect)Beijing Sinnet Technology