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Nscale

Category: AI Infrastructure

A full-stack AI infrastructure platform that delivers vertically integrated compute, networking, storage, managed software, and AI services through company-owned sustainable data centers, purpose-built for training, fine-tuning, and deploying large-scale AI models. Nscale was founded in 2024. The company is led by Josh Payne. Based in London, United Kingdom. Team size: 200+. Total funding raised: $3.722B. Latest round: Series C ($2.0B, Mar 2026). Key investors include Aker ASA (Norwegian industrial group), 8090 Industries, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Dell Technologies, Nokia, Sandton Capital Partners, Blue Owl, Point72, Jane Street, Citadel, Fidelity Management & Research Company, G Squared.

AMW Analysis

Nscale is a London-based, full-stack AI infrastructure provider that builds vertically integrated compute, networking, storage, and managed software through company-owned, sustainable data centers, targeting training, fine-tuning, and deployment of large-scale AI models. Founded in 2024, the company positions itself around eliminating cluster-management overhead for customers while emphasizing sovereign, cost-effective GPU compute delivered end-to-end from data center to orchestration layer.

Its funding trajectory has been rapid and large in scale: after raising $1.5 billion in prior rounds, Nscale pursued a further $2 billion round in early 2026 led by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, tied to its role as a partner in the Nvidia-OpenAI Stargate initiative and a stated goal of deploying 100,000 GPUs by the end of 2026. That round closed as a $2.0 billion Series C in March 2026 at a $14.6 billion valuation, described as Europe's largest Series C to date, bringing total funding to $3.722 billion. The company has also secured a deployment agreement covering 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs across US and European data centers for Microsoft and OpenAI, and its investor base includes strategic and financial backers such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Dell Technologies, and several institutional investment firms.

AMW analysis, generated from 2 tracked news signals.

Founded
2024
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Team size
200+
Total funding
$3.722B

Value proposition

Provides complete vertically integrated AI infrastructure from data center to orchestration layer, enabling customers to deploy production-ready AI workloads faster with sustainable, sovereign, and cost-effective GPU compute while eliminating cluster management overhead through managed services

Products and solutions

AI Services (Serverless inference endpoints, fine-tuning workflows, Prompt Workbench), Platform Services (Nscale Kubernetes Service, Slurm clusters, bare metal nodes, virtual machines), Infrastructure Services (GPU-optimized storage, RDMA/InfiniBand/NVLink networking), Fleet Operations (Control Center, Observability, Radar API), Nscale SLONK (High-performance compute cluster management platform), Modular, sovereign, sustainably-powered data centers

Unique value

Only AI hyperscaler offering fully vertically integrated infrastructure from renewable-powered data centers to orchestration software; operates 100% renewable energy facilities using Arctic hydro, geothermal, and seawater cooling; achieved $14.6B valuation within 2 years of founding (May 2024); can provision Kubernetes environments in under 2 minutes; contracts for approximately 200,000 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs

Target customer

Enterprise companies, AI-native startups, governments, telecommunications providers, financial services firms, healthcare & life sciences organizations requiring sovereign, scalable AI infrastructure for large-scale model training and inference

Industries served

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing & Infrastructure, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, High-Performance Computing (HPC), Government & Public Sector

Technology advantage

Combines purpose-built modular data centers with latest NVIDIA GPU technology (H100, H200, GB200, GB300), advanced cooling systems (liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers), proprietary fleet management software, and strategic partnerships to deliver cost-effective, scalable AI compute. Vertically integrated stack allows optimization at every layer for maximum performance and efficiency while ensuring data sovereignty and regulatory compliance.

How they differentiate

Only AI hyperscaler offering fully vertically integrated infrastructure from renewable-powered data centers to orchestration software; operates 100% renewable energy facilities using Arctic hydro, geothermal, and seawater cooling; strong emphasis on data sovereignty and regulatory compliance; European market leadership with strategic sovereign AI infrastructure projects (Stargate Norway, Stargate UK)

Main competitors

CoreWeave, Lambda Labs, Crusoe

Key partnerships

NVIDIA (strategic investor and GPU supplier, DGX Cloud partnership, Stargate projects), Microsoft ($14B infrastructure contract for 200,000 GPUs across Europe and US), OpenAI (Stargate Norway and Stargate UK sovereign AI infrastructure projects), Dell Technologies (hardware partnership for GPU deployments), AMD (first AI GPU cloud provider using Instinct MI300X accelerators), Aker ASA (lead investor, Stargate Norway partnership), Nokia (strategic investor), 8090 Industries (co-lead investor Series C)

Notable customers

Microsoft ($14B+ infrastructure contract for 200,000 GPUs across Europe and US), OpenAI (Stargate Norway and Stargate UK sovereign AI infrastructure projects), Enterprise AI companies, Government and public sector organizations

Major milestones

Raised $155M Series A led by Sandton Capital Partners in Dec 2024, Raised $1.1B Series B (largest in European history) led by Aker ASA in Sep 2025, Raised $433M Pre-Series C SAFE with NVIDIA, Dell, Nokia participation in Oct 2025, Raised $2B Series C at $14.6B valuation led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries in Mar 2026, Secured Stargate Norway joint venture with Aker ASA and OpenAI for 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs, Partnered with Microsoft to build UK's largest AI supercomputer, Contracted approximately 200,000 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs with Microsoft across Europe and US, Appointed high-profile board members including Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg (Mar 2026)

Growth metrics

Reached $14.6B valuation within 2 years of founding (May 2024 - March 2026); contracted approximately 200,000 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs; 200+ employees; operational data centers across Europe and expanding to North America

Market positioning

Europe's most valuable AI infrastructure startup at $14.6B valuation; vertically integrated AI hyperscaler competing with US-based neocloud providers and traditional hyperscalers; positioned as sovereign AI infrastructure provider for European governments and enterprises

Geographic focus

Europe (UK, Norway) and North America (USA); expanding across Nordic region with renewable-powered facilities; strategic data centers in Glomfjord and Kvandal, Norway; Loughton, UK; and Texas, USA

Patents and IP

No registered patents publicly disclosed as of March 2026

About Josh Payne

Founder and CEO of Nscale (2024-present). Previously Founder & Executive Chairman of Arkon Energy (2021-2023), a Bitcoin mining and HPC infrastructure company. Founder of Artemis (2018-2021), an energy trading and infrastructure firm. Portfolio Manager at Element Capital (2015-2018) in quantitative finance. Served as a commissioned officer in the British Army (2010-2015). Deep expertise in energy infrastructure, data centers, hardware supply chains, and supercomputing infrastructure, with a track record of building high-growth businesses across multiple sectors.

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