AI data center startup Nscale as it hits $14.6 billion valuation

AI data center startup Nscale has raised $2 billion at a $14.6 billion valuation, the company announced on Monday, as the AI infrastructure boom continues.

The Series C featured Nvidia and was led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries. Astra Capital Management, Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia and Point72 also participated.

Nscale is also announcing three new directors on its board, including former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former UK deputy prime minister and Meta executive Nick Clegg and former Yahoo President Susan Decker.

Founded in 2024, Nscale has emerged as a key player in the AI infrastructure buildout, developing data centers and operating cloud computing services.

The UK-based startup has raised a slew of funding in the past year as investors have piled into the sector. It announced a $1.4 billion delayed draw term loan in February and a $1.1 billion Series B in September.

The fresh funds are inclusive of the $433 Million pre-Series C SAFE round in October.

Fresh capital would help accelerate Nscale’s development of vertically integrated AI infrastructure — from GPU compute and networking to data services and orchestration software — across Europe, North America, and Asia, the company said in a statement.

The AI boom is “leading to the largest infrastructure buildout in human history,” said Josh Payne, CEO and founder of UK-based Nscale, echoing past comments from Jensen Huang, CEO at Nvidia, which invested in the round. “We are building this foundation that the market sits on, the engine of superintelligence.”

Nscale is eyeing an initial public offering, the company confirmed to CNBC in October.

The startup, which operates data centers in the U.K., the U.S., Norway, Portugal and Iceland, has inked deals with a number of Big Tech companies in recent times.

Nscale announced an “expanded partnership” with Microsoft in October, netting the younger company $14 billion, a figure first reported by the FT and verified by CNBC. Over the summer, it partnered with OpenAI to launch a Stargate-branded AI data center in Norway.