Amid growing demand for data centers that can deliver AI computing at scale, Nvidia-backed British AI infrastructure company Nscale is currently valued at $14.6 billion. This makes it one of Europe’s newest decacons, along with Helsing and Mistral AI.
Nscale has invested in vertical integration, from energy and data centers to compute and orchestration software. The new valuation comes from a $2 billion Series C that it calls “the largest in European history.” However, this figure includes the $433 million pre-Series C SAFE backed by Blue Owl, Dell, Nvidia, and Nokia last October.
The raise was backed by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, and their participation was interpreted as preparation for an IPO. Nscale CEO Josh Payne told The New York Times that his company may explore going public “early this year” to raise more capital.
Along with the funding and plans, the company announced that former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo President Susan Decker, and former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are joining its board of directors.
Nscale is not new to large rounds and announcements. Last September, it announced a $1.1 billion Series B led by Aker. Aker is a Norwegian public company with interests in energy and is co-leading the Series C with New York-based investment firm 8090 Industries.
The two companies also agreed that the joint venture between Aker and Nscale will now be fully managed by the startup. Dubbed “Stargate Norway,” this Norway-based AI infrastructure project has ambitions to be running on 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026, with OpenAI as an initial customer.
According to Aker President and CEO Øyvind Eriksen, who sits on Nscale’s Board of Directors, “This step strengthens execution by putting delivery and governance under one roof while maintaining continuity of people and projects already underway.”
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Last October, Nscale signed an expanded deal with Microsoft to partner with Dell to deliver approximately 200,000 Nvidia GPUs to three data centers in Europe and one in the United States.
Dell and Nvidia participated in Series C, as did Astra Capital, Citadel, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, and Point72. Nscale expects the new funding will help accelerate the development of its AI infrastructure across Europe, North America and Asia, while expanding the company’s engineering and operations teams and strengthening its platform.
Equity aside, the company increased its debt last month through a $1.4 billion delayed draw term loan backed by GPU to finance some of its clusters across Europe. As part of Stargate Norway, we aim to renew our commitments to reuse waste heat, develop local technologies and invest in local infrastructure, while leveraging growing corporate demand and low-cost renewable energy.
