Nebius Plans GPU Price Hikes as CoreWeave Seeks $3B in Convertible Debt
Scarce accelerator capacity still supports higher list prices. The supply side is financing that scarcity with convertibles and share issuance, so shareholder returns depend on the spread after depreciation, interest and dilution.
Nebius plans to raise list prices on several Nvidia GPU instances from October 1, according to pricing communications reported on September 17. H100 pricing is expected to rise from $3.85 to about $4.50 per GPU-hour, while published increases for newer H200, B200 and B300 capacity are around 20%.
That is direct evidence that flexible accelerator capacity can still command more at the sticker price. Nebius reported second-quarter revenue of $582.3 million, up 454% year on year, with AI Cloud accounting for almost all of it. The caveat is commercial rather than rhetorical: committed-use discounts and customer contracts determine how much of a list-price increase reaches realized revenue.
CoreWeave shows what the other side of the scarcity trade costs. On September 17 it launched a $3 billion private convertible-note offering due 2033, with an option for another $500 million, and established an equity distribution agreement covering up to 35 million Class A shares. The expected convertible coupon is 2.375%-2.875%, with a 22.5%-27.5% initial conversion premium.
Equity optionality is buying down the cash interest bill
At the midpoint of the indicated coupon range, $3 billion of notes would carry about $78.8 million of annual cash interest before the option. The roughly 2.625% midpoint coupon is about seven percentage points below CoreWeave's 9.75% senior notes issued in April 2026 and its 9.625% U.S.-dollar senior notes issued in June. Those were straight senior notes, while the new security gives investors equity upside through conversion; the lower cash coupon therefore comes with an equity-linked claim rather than representing a like-for-like fall in CoreWeave's financing cost.
The structure reduces near-term cash interest relative to expensive straight debt while preserving a future dilution channel. The separate 35 million-share facility adds another route to equity capital. CoreWeave says the proceeds can support capital expenditure, debt repayment, acquisitions and other corporate purposes; capped-call transactions are intended to offset some dilution over a defined share-price range.
Nebius has used the same broad playbook of equity-linked financing to fund rapid capacity expansion. Strong pricing and heavy capital raising can coexist because GPU clouds pay for hardware, networking and data-center infrastructure before the revenue stream has fully amortized those assets.
For shareholders, list-price inflation is only one side of the return equation. The useful spread is realized revenue per unit of capacity minus power, operating cost, depreciation and financing cost, adjusted for the equity transferred through convertibles or direct issuance. High utilization can make that spread attractive. Falling accelerator scarcity can compress it while the capital structure remains.
September 17 provides evidence on both sides. Flexible GPU supply is scarce enough for Nebius to increase published prices, and financing markets are receptive enough for CoreWeave to fund growth at a low cash coupon by sharing equity upside. The sector has not solved its capital intensity; it has found investors willing to finance it on equity-linked terms.