Arkaid Volzhay from Nebius will acquire a team of search engine specialists for AI agents Tavily for $275 million

Nebius Group announced the acquisition of Israeli AI startup Tavily

Nebius Group, led by Arkadiy Volozh and specializing in cloud computing for artificial intelligence, has agreed to buy the startup Tavily for $275 million. The purchase is being made after Nebius split from the Russian internet company Yandex in 2024.

What does Tavily do?
Tavily develops software that enables AI agents to quickly find up‑to‑date information. This is especially important for tasks such as:

* code writing;
* algorithmic trading of securities and assets;
* customer support;
* travel planning.

The startup has raised $25 million in funding from firms such as Insight Partners, and among its clients are IBM and Cohere Inc. It competes with Exa Labs, backed by Nvidia.

What will change after the deal?
* The founder and CEO of Tavily – Rotem Weiss – along with his team will join Nebius.
* Nebius will continue to expand its service portfolio, offering AI computing in data centers across the United States, Europe, and Israel. Current customers already include Microsoft Corp.
* A new product – Token Factory (launched in November) – provides access to open‑source models and compute resources for running them.

Why is this important?
Roman Chernin, co‑founder and business development director at Nebius, noted that traditional search is not suitable for autonomous AI agents. Such agents:
1. Do not just want a list of links – they refine queries repeatedly.
2. Require real‑time data; ordinary large language models (LLMs) are often not updated and may lack specific knowledge about a particular company.

Therefore Nebius sees the need for specialized search solutions that Tavily can provide.

Conclusion
Acquiring Tavily strengthens Nebius’s position as a provider of comprehensive AI infrastructure solutions. The startup’s employees will now become part of the Nebius team, and clients will gain access to more accurate and timely search tools for their AI agents.