Against the backdrop of growing demand for data centers capable of handling AI computations at scale, the British infrastructure company Nscale, backed by Nvidia, is now valued at $14.6 billion. This makes it one of the last European ‘decacorns’ alongside Helsing and Mistral AI.
The company has focused on full vertical integration – from energy and data centers to compute power and orchestration software. The new valuation is based on a $2 billion Series C round, which was described as ‘the biggest in Europe’s history’, though the figure includes a $433 million SAFE pre-Series C signed by Blue Owl, Dell, Nvidia, and Nokia in October.
The round received backing from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, whose involvement is seen as preparation for an IPO – and not without reason: Nscale CEO Josh Payne told The New York Times that the company could go public ‘as early as this year’ to raise additional capital.
Funding backed by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, whose involvement was viewed as preparation for an IPO – and not without reason: Nscale CEO Josh Payne told The New York Times that his company could go public ‘as early as this year’ to raise additional capital.
– Josh Payne, The New York Times
Key board members and Stargate Norway
It was also announced that former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo president Susan Decker, and former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg joined Nscale’s board.
Nscale is no stranger to large rounds. In September the company announced a Series B of $1.1 billion led by Aker – the publicly listed Norwegian energy-focused company – which also chairs the Series C together with the New York-based investment firm 8090 Industries.
The companies also agreed that the Aker–Nscale joint venture will now be fully led by the startup. The Stargate Norway project, based in Norway, aims to deploy AI infrastructure with 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026, with OpenAI as an initial client.
According to Oyvind Eriksen, president and CEO of Aker, who sits on the board: “this move strengthens execution by bringing delivery and management under one roof, while maintaining continuity for people and projects already underway.”
Last October, Nscale also signed an expanded agreement with Microsoft to supply approximately 200,000 Nvidia GPUs for three data centers in Europe and one in the United States, in collaboration with Dell.
Participants in the Series C round included Astra Capital, Citadel, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, and Point72. The new funding is expected to accelerate AI infrastructure development in Europe, North America, and Asia, as well as help expand engineering and operations teams and strengthen the platform.
In addition to equity financing, the company secured debt financing of $1.4 billion in the form of a GPU-backed delayed-draw credit facility to finance part of the clusters in Europe. This is part of a strategy to capitalize on rising enterprise demand and the low cost of renewable energy, while continuing the promise of heat reuse and investments in regional infrastructure as part of Stargate Norway.
Stargate Norway aims to become a platform for large-scale deployment of AI infrastructure in Europe and beyond, supporting regional development and strategic partnerships.