European AI Firm Nscale Raises Record $2B
London-based Nscale has raised a $2 billion Series C, the largest venture funding round in European history, valuing the AI infrastructure company at $14.6 billion. As part of the deal, tech and policy heavyweights Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker, and Nick Clegg will join Nscale's board. The capital will be used to accelerate the global buildout of its AI infrastructure.
The funding round drew backing from a strategic consortium of tech hardware giants and major investment firms, including NVIDIA, Dell, Lenovo, Citadel, and Point72, signaling a deep industry buy-in for Nscale's infrastructure approach. The round was co-led by the industrial investment firm Aker ASA and New York-based 8090 Industries. The new board members bring a blend of Big Tech operational and policy experience. Sheryl Sandberg previously served as Meta's COO, while Nick Clegg was Meta's President of Global Affairs and a former UK Deputy Prime Minister. Susan Decker, a former President of Yahoo, currently sits on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway and Costco. This capital is earmarked for concrete projects, including what is planned to be the UK's largest "sovereign" AI data center in Loughton, Essex, expected to come online in 2026. Nscale is also involved with infrastructure initiatives Stargate UK, alongside OpenAI and Nvidia, and Stargate Norway, which focuses on using renewable energy for AI model training. Founded less than two years ago, Nscale was spun out of the Australian bitcoin mining company Arkon Energy in 2024. The company's massive Series C follows a $1.1 billion funding round raised in September 2025, highlighting its rapid financial acceleration. The investment mirrors a global rush into AI infrastructure, a market projected to grow from approximately $75 billion in 2026 to nearly $500 billion by 2034. In 2025 alone, AI-focused companies captured roughly half of all global venture capital investment. Nscale CEO Josh Payne explicitly named "autonomising travel and robotics" as key drivers for what he calls the "largest infrastructure buildout in human history." This foundational layer of GPU compute and data centers is the essential underpinning for training and deploying the large-scale models required for embodied AI and advanced automation.
