London-based AI data center firm Nscale has announced it has raised the largest Series B in UK and European history, at USD $1.1 billion. The financing was led by Aker ASA, with continued support from existing shareholders, including Sandton Capital, and participation from Blue Owl Managed Funds, Dell, Fidelity Management & Research Company, G Squared, Nokia, NVIDIA, Point72 and T.Capital.
Headquartered in the UK and operating globally, Nscale is an AI-native infrastructure platform, providing vertically integrated compute, networking, storage, managed software and AI services delivered in Nscale-owned and colocated data centres.
It directly addresses the surging enterprise demand for GPUs – the engines driving AI in one of the fastest-growing infrastructure markets. Anchored in Europe, its strategically located data centres harness some of the lowest-cost renewable energy in the world, allowing Nscale to pass these significant savings directly to customers while meeting stringent regulatory requirements. From large-scale hubs in Norway to smaller metro clusters designed for latency-sensitive workloads, its next-generation facilities can be delivered more quickly and at a lower cost than the industry benchmarks.
The new funding will be used to further Nscale’s deployment of large-scale AI infrastructure across Europe, North America and the Middle East, enabling the rapid rollout of the company’s “AI factory” data centres for projects like Stargate UK and Stargate Norway, and the expansion of its vertically integrated AI cloud platform. This capital will accelerate the expansion of its engineering and operations teams, and strengthen delivery for enterprise and government customers worldwide.
“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 centres, the GPUs and the software to orchestrate them. We are building a vertically integrated, AI-engineered foundation designed to power the next generation of technological change, enabling industries and innovators across the globe to achieve what today feels impossible.
He added: “We are creating one of the largest global platforms of its kind – purpose-built to meet surging demand and unlock breakthroughs at unprecedented scale. 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.”
“Europe needs a Hyperscaler, and Nscale is rising to the challenge.”
Backed by a seasoned leadership team that has built over 50 data centres, developed leading supercomputing platforms, negotiated large-scale technology contracts and scaled multi-billion-dollar infrastructure businesses, Nscale combines one of the world’s largest GPU pipelines with the proven expertise to deliver at global scale.
In parallel to the delivery of physical AI infrastructure, Nscale is accelerating product innovation across the AI stack: launching a fine-tuning service, advanced inference APIs, an AI Studio, robust orchestration tools and private cloud enhancements.
The raise follows the recent announcement of Nscale’s UK AI infrastructure commitment. Together with Microsoft, it announced its plans to develop the UK’s largest AI supercomputer on Nscale’s AI Campus in Loughton. Separately, Nscale, OpenAI and NVIDIA announced they are together establishing Stargate UK, an overarching infrastructure platform designed to deploy OpenAI’s technology in the UK, with a particular focus on sovereign workloads.
In July, Nscale announced the launch of Stargate Norway, its landmark partnership with Aker ASA and OpenAI to launch Europe’s first hyperscale AI with a target to deliver 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026. Two months later, the Nscale-Aker joint venture deepened this momentum with a multi-billion-dollar agreement with Microsoft to deliver AI infrastructure in Narvik, Norway. Looking ahead, Nscale will expand its relationship with Dell Technologies, using Dell AI infrastructure to further support sovereign AI efforts in Europe.
“Demand for the build-out of secure, scalable AI infrastructure in Europe and across the world continues to accelerate. Nokia is participating in Nscale’s investment round and announcing a partnership with Nscale to combine our expertise in IP and optical networking with their leading infrastructure platform, enabling the innovation needed for the future of AI infrastructure.” Justin Hotard, President and CEO, Nokia
”The future of AI hinges on empowering every nation to innovate securely, independently and on its own terms. We help transform sovereign ambition into global impact by delivering the foundational infrastructure and services needed to realize this vision. Through Dell’s strategic investment and the power of our AI solutions, Nscale is building tailored platforms that drive meaningful progress for citizens and industries worldwide.” – Adrian McDonald, President, EMEA, Dell Technologies
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as exclusive placement agent for Nscale in connection with this capital raise.
