NEW YORK, NY — Shares of Nebius, a prominent neocloud and artificial intelligence firm, experienced a dramatic downturn this week after investors reportedly came to the stunning realization that the development and deployment of cutting-edge AI technology is, in fact, an incredibly expensive endeavor.

The market correction followed Nebius’s announcement of new strategic partnerships and plans to incur substantial debt to finance the construction of vast data centers. This news, rather than being met with enthusiasm, triggered a collective moment of clarity among shareholders who had, until now, apparently operated under the assumption that AI simply manifested itself from pure thought and venture capital PowerPoint presentations.

“We’ve been investing heavily in the future, in the promise of sentient algorithms and predictive analytics,” stated financial analyst Brenda Piffle of Capital Insights, still visibly shaken. “But then they mentioned ‘data centers’ and ‘debt,’ and it hit us: these things need physical infrastructure. They need electricity. They need, dare I say, *money*. It was like finding out your self-driving car still needs gasoline.”

Nebius CEO Dr. Al Gorithm attempted to reassure stakeholders, emphasizing the long-term vision. “Our models are learning, our neural networks are expanding. We just need a few more billion dollars to house them in climate-controlled server farms the size of small nations,” he explained, reportedly to a room full of blank stares. “It’s a small price to pay for the eventual singularity.”

Industry insiders suggest the next major market shock will occur when investors discover that the 'cloud' is not, in fact, a fluffy white entity floating in the sky.