A KNS News follower recently asked whether any foreign governments are connected to DataOne, the company proposing a new data center in Clinton County. The short answer is yes, but not in the way you might think. The long answer is there is no evidence of any foreign government directly sponsoring or controlling the project.
However, there are links to Russia in the backgrounds of several board members of Nebius Group N.V. which is a company closely tied to DataOne, and part of the corporate structure behind the project being pitched in our area. Here’s what we found.
DataOne USA, the developer behind the project, is the American extension of DataOne Group. That company was launched by a firm called BSO, with financial backing from Ardian, a major private investment firm based in France. The project in Vineland, NJ is roughly 300 megawatts and is being built in partnership with another company called Nebius.
Nebius Group N.V. is headquartered in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The company describes itself as an AI-focused infrastructure provider. Its CEO, Arkady Volozh, previously helped found Yandex, a major Russian technology and search-engine company. Because of those past ties, Volozh was placed under European Union sanctions in 2022, but those sanctions were lifted in March of 2024.
According to Nebius, the company has fully separated from its former Russian operations. Public statements from the company say they “cannot offer exposure to the Russian IT ecosystem anymore,” and they now operate as a Europe-based firm focused on data centers and renewable-energy-powered AI infrastructure.
A New Jersey company Northeast Precast (NEP) in Vineland, New Jersey has taken a minority ownership position in DataOne USA. NEP has manufactured some of the concrete components for the facility. NEP is an American-owned business founded by John and Lorie Ruga.
Nebius does have Russian historical roots, but their documents suggest the company separated from its Russian assets last year when Yandex split up. Nebius is now registered in the Netherlands and is publicly traded, with its largest voting block held by a family trust connected to Volozh not a Russian state entity.
One of the board members is Charles E. Ryan. He’s a longtime board member since 2011 of Yandex/Nebius. His background is as a finance professional with 30 years in Russian and international markets. He co-founded UFG (United Financial Group) in Russia and served as CEO of Deutsche Bank Russia until end of 2008. His background includes deep experience in the Russian financial markets.
Another board member John Boynton. He’s been a non-executive director since 2000, and became Chairman in 2016. He was a founding shareholder in what became Yandex’s parent entity, and co-founded companies such as CompTek and InfiNet Wireless which had operations in Russia.
As with most major data-center developments, there can be layers of investors and land-holding companies. Some of that information is not always available in public filings, which makes absolute certainty difficult.
KNS did not find any credible public documentation showing that the New Jersey project is owned or controlled by the Russian government. There are historical Russian business ties through Nebius’ founder, but the company is now structured as a Dutch-based, publicly traded firm. The local land and construction partnership in New Jersey involves American-owned companies.