Nscale Secures $1.1 Billion in Funding to Accelerate AI Infrastructure Buildout

Nvidia-backed Nscale raises $1.1bn in investor frenzy over AI infrastructure

Nscale, the Nvidia-backed cloud computing start-up, said it had raised $1.1bn in the latest large financing of data centres for artificial intelligence. The round is led by Aker, the Norwegian energy and industrial group that Nscale is already working with to build a data centre that will serve customers, including OpenAI, in Narvik in northern Norway. Aker is investing $285mn in the new round, comprised of cash and "a portion of the Narvik land portfolio contributed in-kind" for a 9.3 per cent stake in Nscale, according to a statement from the Norwegian group. That implies the equity financing values Nscale at about $3bn, making it one of the largest such investments for a European tech company at this stage of its development. "We are building the AI-native infrastructure platform of tomorrow," said Josh Payne, Nscale chief executive. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang said last week that the US chipmaker would invest £500mn into Nscale as part of a deal to sell the start-up as many as 300,000 of its AI chips. However, only part of Nvidia's funding pledge was included in this round, Nscale said. Huang said the chips would be able to build AI facilities capable of generating as much as £50bn in revenues over the next six years. "Three months ago, we convinced ourselves that Nscale could be a national champion for the UK," said Huang. Nvidia this week said that it planned to invest as much as $100bn into OpenAI to help the AI company build infrastructure to deliver services such as ChatGPT. Last week, Nscale announced deals to serve big customers such as OpenAI. Nscale and Aker also announced a $6.2bn, five-year contract with Microsoft to give the Big Tech group access to their Narvik facility. Nscale said the $1.1bn investment round would drive expansion in Europe, the US and Middle East. Other investors include Dell, which is supplying Nscale with server equipment, as well as Fidelity Management & Research Company, Nokia and G Squared. Nscale was spun out of Australian provider of bitcoin mining facilities, Arkon Energy, last year and has its headquarters in the UK. The start-up is pitching itself as a "sovereign" provider of AI infrastructure, offering companies and government clients local facilities to process data that customers do not want to send overseas. Øyvind Eriksen, Aker chief executive, said: "AI is reshaping the global economy and redefining the value of renewable energy. With Nscale, we're backing infrastructure that's sovereign, scalable, and purpose-built to accelerate this transformation."

Nscale raises $1.1 billion from Aker, other investors for AI buildout

COPENHAGEN, Sept 25 (Reuters) - British artificial intelligence group Nscale has raised $1.1 billion from investors, including Norway's Aker ASA (AKER.OL), opens new tab and Finland's Nokia (NOKIA.HE), opens new tab, to help accelerate its data centre infrastructure buildout, the companies said on Thursday. The so-called Series B funding round was led by Aker, the investment company of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, which injected $285 million in cash and assets, taking a stake of 9.3% in Nscale. A potential future earn-out could further increase Aker's ownership to 12.2%, the Norwegian group said. U.S. artificial intelligence company OpenAI in July said it would build its first European data centre in Norway's Arctic city of Narvik, jointly with Nscale and Aker. Sandton Capital, Blue Owl Managed Funds, Dell, Fidelity Management & Research Company, G Squared, NVIDIA, Point72 and T.Capital also took part in the funding round, Nscale said. Aker said its 50% stake in the Aker-Narvik joint venture can be converted into additional Nscale shares at a future initial public offering. Reporting by Essi Lehto and Elviira Luoma, editing by Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

British AI firm Nscale raises $1.1 billion in Nvidia-backed funding round

Nscale has become a central player in Britain's ambition to become a global AI powerhouse. British artificial intelligence infrastructure firm Nscale is raising heaps of cash as it looks to ramp up the deployment of AI data centers across Europe. Nscale, which is based in London, said Thursday that it has raised $1.1 billion in a bumper Series B funding round. The investment was led by Aker, the Norwegian industrial investment company, with additional participation from a raft of firms including Nvidia, Nokia and Dell. The investment highlights continued demand for high-powered computing infrastructure, which is required to train and run powerful foundational AI models from companies like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google. Nscale has become a central player in Britain's ambition to become a global AI powerhouse. Last week, the likes of Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI announced multibillion-dollar projects involving Nscale to build out AI computing infrastructure across the U.K. "We are creating one of the largest global [infrastructure] platforms of its kind - purpose-built to meet surging demand and unlock breakthroughs at unprecedented scale," said Josh Payne, Nscale's CEO and co-founder, in a statement. "This allows Nscale to provide our customers access to scarce, and highly sought after, compute capacity and rapidly accelerate the build-out of secure, compliant and energy-efficient AI infrastructure," he added. Nscale was spun out from Arkon Energy, an Australian cryptocurrency mining firm, in 2023 to address soaring demand for data centers capable of handling AI workloads. It is working with OpenAI in the U.K. and Norway to build new data centers as part of the ChatGPT maker's Stargate investment project. Nscale said that part of the Series B funding would go toward "enabling the rapid rollout" of the Stargate data center projects in Europe. The company is committing $1 billion for the Norwegian project, with the goal of racking up 100,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) at the site before 2027. The U.K. site, meanwhile, will house 8,000 GPUs in its first phase early next year, with the option to expand capacity to around 31,000 GPUs over time.

Crypto entrepreneur raises £750m to build UK's biggest AI data centre

An 18-month-old start-up has raised more than $1bn (£746m) to build Britain's biggest AI data centre, despite never having completed one. Nscale, which is at the centre of Sir Keir Starmer's plans to become an artificial intelligence hub, has secured $1.1bn from investors including Nvidia, Nokia and the Norwegian investment giant Aker. The company was only founded in May last year and has not yet constructed a site, although it is scheduled to build a data centre in Essex with Microsoft which has been described as Britain's largest AI supercomputer. It is also planning to build a series of "Stargate" AI hubs with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, beginning with a data centre in Newcastle upon Tyne. The deal makes Nscale, which spun out of an Australian cryptocurrency mining operation, one of Britain's most valuable AI companies. Aker said it was paying $285m for a 9.3pc stake, suggesting the company is worth around $3bn. Nscale was founded by Australian Josh Payne, 31, who previously ran Arkon Energy, a Bitcoin mining company. It remains largely owned by Arkon, according to filings at Companies House.

AI data center builder Nscale raises $1.1B round backed by Nvidia - SiliconANGLE

AI data center builder Nscale raises $1.1B round backed by Nvidia Data center startup Nscale Global Holdings Ltd. today announced that it has raised $1.1 billion in funding to grow its infrastructure footprint. Norwegian investment firm Aker ASA led the Series B round. It was joined by Nvidia Corp., Dell Technologies Inc., Nokia Corp. and several other backers. "This allows Nscale to provide our customers access to scarce, and highly sought after, compute capacity and rapidly accelerate the build-out of secure, compliant and energy-efficient AI infrastructure," said Chief Executive Josh Payne. Nscale builds data centers optimized for artificial intelligence workloads. The company uses Nvidia graphics processing units and Kubernetes to power its infrastructure. It also provides access to Slurm, an open-source Kubernetes alternative that is often used to train large language models. Developers use the technology because it facilitates high server utilization, which reduces unnecessary hardware costs. Nscale offers bare-metal clusters for customers with more advanced requirements. Those clusters don't include Kubernetes or other preinstalled software, which makes it possible to customize them for specific workloads. Meanwhile, customers who don't wish to manually configure infrastructure have access to a serverless inference service. Nscale operates a 30-megawatt data center (pictured) in Glomfjord, a Norwegian town located inside the Arctic Circle. In June, it inked a deal to build a second Norwegian data center for OpenAI. The facility is expected to use 520 megawatts of power, over 10 times more than Nscale's first facility, and will host 10,000 Nvidia graphics cards. OpenAI won't be the data center's sole user. Last week, Microsoft Corp. signed a contract to rent some of the AI infrastructure installed in the facility. The five-year agreement is worth $6.2 billion. The data center will be owned by a joint venture between Nscale and Aker, the investment firm that led its newly announced funding round. The startup is also building data center infrastructure in the U.K. It will help OpenAI deploy an AI cluster called Stargate U.K. that will be equipped with 8,000 graphics cards in the first quarter of 2026. Over time, OpenAI and Nscale hope to add as many as 23,000 additional GPUs. Nscale will use its newly raised capital to finance data center construction. The company plans to power some of the upcoming AI clusters with hardware from Dell, one of the tech firms that backed its funding round. Nscale will hire more engineering and operations professionals to support the effort.

Nscale raises $1.1 billion from Aker, other investors for AI buildout

Nscale, a British AI firm, has secured $1.1 billion in Series B funding from investors like Aker ASA and Nokia to expand its data center infrastructure. Aker led the round with a $285 million investment, acquiring a 9.3% stake, potentially increasing to 12.2%. British artificial intelligence group Nscale has raised $1.1 billion from investors, including Norway's Aker ASA and Finland's Nokia, to help accelerate its data centre infrastructure buildout, the companies said on Thursday. The so-called Series B funding round was led by Aker, the investment company of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, which injected $285 million in cash and assets, taking a stake of 9.3% in Nscale. A potential future earn-out could further increase Aker's ownership to 12.2%, the Norwegian group said. U.S. artificial intelligence company OpenAI in July said it would build its first European data centre in Norway's Arctic city of Narvik, jointly with Nscale and Aker. Sandton Capital, Blue Owl Managed Funds, Dell, Fidelity Management & Research Company, G Squared, Nvidia, Point72 and T.Capital also took part in the funding round, Nscale said. Aker said its 50% stake in the Aker-Narvik joint venture can be converted into additional Nscale shares at a future initial public offering.

Nscale secures $1.1B funding as AI data centre race intensifies in UK, Norway By Invezz

Invezz.com - Nscale, the artificial intelligence data centre developer, has secured $1.1 billion in fresh financing, just one week after announcing a partnership with Nvidia and OpenAI in the UK. The funding round, led by Norwegian energy giant Aker ASA alongside investors such as Point72, Nvidia, and Nokia, positions Nscale at the centre of Europe's push to build high-capacity AI facilities. With OpenAI signed on as an anchor customer and Microsoft striking a $6.2 billion deal for computing power from a Norway-based site, Nscale's rapid expansion highlights the scale of demand for advanced computing infrastructure. "We are building the AI-native Infrastructure platform of tomorrow," said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale. "AI is reshaping industries, economies, and national strategies - but it cannot happen without the physical backbone: the data centers, the GPUs and the software to orchestrate them." Investment details and valuationAker ASA confirmed it would commit $285 million in cash and land, securing a 9.3% stake in Nscale. This contribution formed part of the $1.1 billion package, which also saw participation from Blue Owl Capital, Dell Technologies, and Fidelity Management and Research Company. Although Nscale declined to disclose final terms, the deal implies a valuation of around $3.1 billion. Shares of Aker rose 1.2% to 767 kroner ($69.00) following the announcement, reflecting market confidence in its AI-focused investments. Controlled by billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke, Aker has already diversified into industrial AI through its ownership of Cognite, alongside its substantial holdings in Aker BP, Norway's second-largest oil and gas producer. Nscale, founded in 2024 after spinning out from a cryptocurrency mining business, is one of several "neocloud" companies competing in this space. Rivals such as CoreWeave and Nebius are also benefiting from soaring demand for access to advanced AI chips, with governments and corporations competing to secure capacity. Expansion plans in the UK and NorwayNscale said the fresh capital will support the rollout of its large-scale AI infrastructure across Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The funding will go toward building its "AI factory" data centers, including projects such as Stargate UK and Stargate Norway, while also expanding its vertically integrated AI cloud platform. The company added that the investment will accelerate the growth of its engineering and operations teams and enhance delivery capabilities for enterprise and government clients globally. Nscale is building a large-scale AI data centre in Norway in partnership with Aker, with OpenAI as a confirmed anchor client. The project is part of broader efforts by the UK and Norway to position themselves as leading destinations for AI infrastructure. The company is also spearheading the Stargate project in the UK, chosen by OpenAI to build its first such facility in the country. Alongside that, Nscale is collaborating with Microsoft to develop the UK's largest AI supercomputer in Loughton, Essex. Despite its ambitious pipeline, Nscale has yet to build a fully operational AI-dedicated data centre. It inherited some sites from its crypto operations but is still in the process of scaling them to meet the performance and cooling needs of advanced AI workloads.