Half of Russian Companies Ready to Increase AI Spending, Quarter Plan to Boost Cloud Costs

According to a study by analytical agency Apple Hills Digital, in July 2026, over a quarter (26%) of Russian companies plan to increase spending on infrastructure cloud services (IaaS) through 2027-2028. In 2025, the IaaS market grew by 28% to reach 96 billion rubles. The trend of rising costs was confirmed by leading cloud platforms including MWS Cloud, Yandex Cloud, VK Tech, Cloud.ru, K2 Cloud, Selectel, Turbo Clouds, as well as IT integrator AWG and RetailCRM. The study also shows that 42% of respondents intend to increase spending on AI and ML solutions, 40% plan to launch new IT products on cloud infrastructure, and 34% want to boost funding for high-performance GPU computing. Spending varies by business size: large companies spend 10-15 million rubles per month on average, medium businesses 400-700 thousand rubles, and small businesses 15-25 thousand rubles. K2 Cloud CEO Sergey Zinkevich estimates IaaS costs for large businesses at 3-5 million rubles per month. Turbo Clouds expects a 30% growth in 2026, and in the Moscow region, IaaS computing resources grew 10%, storage 14%, and SSD 21% from January to July 2026. MWS Cloud may increase costs by 15% in 2027. RetailCRM CEO Dmitry Borozdin reported IaaS spending of 23.2 million rubles in H1 2026, up 8.4% year-over-year, with an annual plan of 59.1 million rubles, a 34% growth. AI has become the fastest-growing share of IaaS spending, with 24% of companies launching AI workloads in the cloud and 22% piloting or planning to do so by end of 2027. In leading companies, AI can account for up to 70% of cloud budget. GPU instance usage surged in 2025, with 24% of companies reporting sharp growth, and 32% of VK Tech clients come to the cloud for experimentation speed. Selectel's AI director Alexander Tugov notes that AI is not yet dominant for most companies, but in internet, retail, and finance, AI spending is growing faster and becoming a notable share of infrastructure budgets, used in revenue-affecting scenarios like recommendation systems, personalization, demand forecasting, and dynamic pricing.