MOSCOW, Dec 29 : A three way partnership managed by Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin has acquired a 25 per cent stake in IT infrastructure supplier Selectel, one of many enterprise’s companions mentioned on Monday, as Moscow seeks to spice up growth of home-grown synthetic intelligence fashions.
Catalytic People, a three way partnership between Potanin’s holding firm Interros and T-Technologies, the proprietor of on-line lender T-Bank, has bought a 25 per cent stake in Selectel, valued at some 16 billion roubles ($206 million), T-Technologies mentioned in an announcement.
President Vladimir Putin has mentioned home-grown AI fashions are very important to preserving Russian sovereignty, and has urged expertise firms similar to Sberbank and Yandex to meet up with U.S. and Chinese rivals.
Potanin, CEO of Russian metals firm Nornickel and its largest shareholder, has expanded his investments within the expertise sector, buying a 9.95 per cent stake in web large Yandex, typically dubbed “Russia’s Google”, earlier this 12 months.
“I think that in the near future, in Norilsk Nickel, as well as in many other Russian companies, there will be a breakthrough in this area,” Potanin mentioned in a tv interview that aired final week, referring to AI.
Interros, Potanin’s holding firm, is T-Technologies’ largest shareholder, with a 41 per cent stake.
T-Technologies President Stanislav Bliznyuk mentioned the acquisition would enable the corporate to utilise Selectel’s huge cloud infrastructure in its growth of AI merchandise.
Selectel’s income for the first 9 months of 2025 grew by 42 per cent year-on-year to 13.5 billion roubles, T-Technologies mentioned.
($1 = 77.4000 roubles)