Nscale
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | AI Infrastructure |
| Founded | May 2024 in London, United Kingdom |
| Founder | Joshua Payne |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Products | AI Services, AI Private Cloud, AI Factories |
Number of employees | ~1,000 |
| Website | https://www.nscale.com/ |
Nscale is a Europe-based technology company that operates data centres and GPU cloud infrastructure.[1] Headquartered in London, the company was founded in 2024 by Joshua Payne.[2][3]
History
[edit]Nscale was incorporated on May 29, 2024 by co-founders Josh Payne and Nathan Townsend.[1] The company began as an offshoot of Arkon Energy as a provider of infrastructure for crypto mining, according to the Financial Times.[4] Arkon was based in Melbourne, and Payne is Australian.[5] The FT reported that "Nscale was born (from “stealth mode”) out of Arkon Energy, a Melbourne, Australia-based crypto miner following a $155mn Series A funding round in December 2024. At the same time, Nscale's bitcoin mining operations were being wound down."[6]
Nscale's Series B investment round in 2025 raised $1.1 billion from companies like "Aker, the Norwegian industrial investment company, with additional participation from a raft of firms including NVIDIA, Nokia and Dell".[7]
By October 2025, Nscale secured $433 million in a pre-Series C SAFE funding round[8] and had expanded into Portugal, the UK, US, and Iceland.[9]
In March 2026, Nscale raised $2 billion in its Series C funding round[10][11] as former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo! president Susan Decker, and former U.K. deputy prime minister Nick Clegg joined its board of directors.[4][12][13][14] The company achieved a valuation of $14.6 billion in March 2026.[15][16][17]
Partnerships and projects
[edit]- Nscale has a partnership with Microsoft to supply the tech firm with 200,000 NVIDIA chips.[18]
- In September 2024, Nscale partnered with Singtel to expand Graphics Processing Unit as a Service (GPUaaS) capacity across Europe and Southeast Asia. The agreement provided Nscale access to NVIDIA H100 GPUs through Singtel’s Paragon platform and data centre infrastructure from Nxera, while Singtel gained access to Nscale’s AMD and NVIDIA accelerator capacity in Europe for regional AI workloads.[19]
- Nscale partnered with Vast Data in October 2025 to deploy Vast Data's AI Operating System as the data layer for Nscale's global AI cloud infrastructure.[20]
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Nscale explained: Everything you need to know | Computer Weekly". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 2026-05-06.
- ↑ Kanetkar, Riddhi. "Exclusive: Read the 9-page memo hyperscaler startup Nscale used to raise a $155 million Series A". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-05-06.
- ↑ "AI data center builder Nscale nabs $155M investment". SiliconANGLE. 2024-12-09. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
- 1 2 Ashworth, Louis (12 March 2026). "Nscale's borrowed credibility". Financial Times.
- ↑ Ashworth, Louis (19 September 2025). "Is the 'British firm' at the heart of Britain's AI plans actually British?". Financial Times.
- ↑ Ashworth, Louis (23 March 2026). "Nscale's credit history (slightly chipped)". Financial Times.
- ↑ Browne, Ryan (2025-09-25). "British AI firm Nscale raises $1.1 billion in Nvidia-backed funding round". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-03-29.
- ↑ say, Georgia Butler Have your (2026-05-21). "Nscale closes $433m pre-Series C SAFE funding round". www.datacenterdynamics.com. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
- ↑ Nicol-Schwarz, Kai (2026-03-09). "Nvidia backs AI data center startup Nscale as it hits $14.6 billion valuation". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "Market Chatter: AI Cloud Firm Nscale in Talks to Raise Up to $3.5 Billion in Pre-IPO Financing". Yahoo Finance. 4 September 2026. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ Garcia, David Cendon (2026-07-10). "AI puts UK startup funding back in the big leagues with strongest first half since 2022, new data shows". EU-Startups. Retrieved 2026-09-24.
- ↑ Heim, Anna (2026-03-09). "Sandberg, Clegg join Nscale board as this 'Stargate Norway' startup hits $14.6B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
- ↑ "Nvidia-backed Nscale valued at $14.6 billion in fresh funding round". Reuters. 2026-03-09. Retrieved 2026-09-24.
- ↑ Down, Aisha (2026-03-09). "British AI datacentre firm Nscale raises $2bn as Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg join board". The Guardian. Retrieved 2026-09-24.
- ↑ Hurley, James (2026-03-13). "Is the star-studded optimism around Nscale on the money?". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2026-03-28.
- ↑ Jayaprakash, Prathik; Mehraj, Anzar (2026-09-04). "Nscale seeks about $3.5 billion pre-IPO funding, source says". Reuters. Retrieved 2026-09-24.
- ↑ Orru, Mauro (2026-03-09). "Nvidia-Backed Startup Nscale Raises Funds at $14.6 Billion Valuation". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2026-09-24.
- ↑ "UK's Nscale to supply Microsoft with 200,000 Nvidia AI chips". Reuters. 15 October 2025.
- ↑ Trueman, Charlotte (2026-05-14). "Singtel and Nscale announce partnership to boost GPU capacity across Europe and Southeast Asia". www.datacenterdynamics.com. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
- ↑ "Nscale and VAST Data Partner to Build Global AI Infrastructure". Techerati. 2025-11-04. Retrieved 2026-05-26.