Nebius locks 50 MW of critical IT at an AIB southeastern U.S. site

Nebius added another named power-backed lease. AIB Data Centers said on 30 September 2026 that it entered a binding agreement with Nebius for 50 MW of critical IT capacity at a southeastern U.S. facility.

The initial term is 12 years. AIB says customer prepayments plus project debt and preferred equity should cover a substantial share of initial development cost, and that the site already has a 15-year electric service agreement for 65 MW of utility load with no significant extra electrical upgrades needed. Capacity is planned in two data halls. Nebius’s infrastructure chief is quoted on time-to-power and dedicated southeastern capacity for training and inference.

AIB is not on the AI map as an ID; Nebius is C032. Data Center Dynamics later names the site CLT1 in South Carolina from an investor deck — that label is corroboration, not part of the claim.

Why it sits on the AI map: a public neocloud is converting an existing power position into contracted critical IT, which is the bottleneck T3 watches. It is still under construction.

Limits: not Ready for Service; no GPU type or contract dollars in the AIB release; renewal and hall-timing details in secondary coverage are not in the claim. No thesis-row status change. On the map, Nebius moves from no targeting signal to green. Nothing turns red.

What would change the picture: Ready-for-Service disclosure; a stated contract value; delivery miss; or the agreement terminating.