⛅️ Yandex and VK in Talks to Form Joint Venture
Yandex and VK are in discussions to create a joint venture by merging their corporate divisions, Yandex B2B Tech and VK Tech, according to IT market sources. Preliminary reports suggest the parties may hold equal 50/50 stakes in the new alliance, with the JV operating under the legal entity BTB Tech LLC.
The deal has been in development for over two months, though the final scope of transferred assets has yet to be finalized. Under one baseline scenario, VK would contribute VK Tech in its entirety, while Yandex would transfer key B2B services: the Yandex Cloud platform, the Yandex 360 office suite, and its generative AI solutions (Yandex AI Studio).
Yandex B2B Tech is Yandex’s enterprise solution ecosystem, focusing on cloud infrastructure, data management, corporate software, and generative AI (including the SourceCraft platform). In the first half of 2026, revenue for Yandex’s B2B division grew 32% year-over-year to 28.9 billion rubles.
VK Tech is VK’s enterprise division, which developed the VK Cloud infrastructure, the VK WorkSpace platform, the Tarantool DBMS, and process automation software (VK HR Tek, Tax Compliance, Process Mining). In H1 2026, the division reported a 35.3% revenue increase (reaching 9 billion rubles), with the SME segment nearly doubling (+97.5%). VK Tech’s client base is predominantly made up of the IT sector (23%), oil and gas (22%), and the public sector (11%).
Creating a unified entity will combine the expertise of Russia’s two largest tech ecosystems, establishing a consolidated leader in the fast-growing market for enterprise cloud software, business intelligence, and AI tools.
Source: RBC
