Nscale Raises $2B Series C
UK-based AI infrastructure company Nscale has secured $2 billion in Series C funding—the largest in European history—bringing its valuation to $14.6 billion. The round was led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with Nvidia and Citadel among other major investors. Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker, and Nick Clegg join the board.
Founded in 2024, Nscale aims to be a "neocloud" provider, offering specialized infrastructure for AI training and inference. The company focuses on a vertically integrated model, managing everything from data centers and energy to the computing hardware and orchestration software needed for large-scale AI deployments. This approach is designed to provide clients with a complete, optimized environment for their AI workloads. The company's founder and CEO, Josh Payne, has a background in building businesses in recruitment, capital markets, and supercomputing infrastructure. Before Nscale, he founded Arkon Energy, a bitcoin mining company from which Nscale was spun out in 2024. The latest funding follows a $1.1 billion round in September 2025 and a $155 million Series A in December 2024. Nscale has established significant partnerships with major tech players, including a collaboration with OpenAI to build Europe's first "AI Gigafactory" in Norway and an expanded partnership with Microsoft. The company is also a key part of the UK's AI infrastructure strategy and plans to utilize 10,000 of investor Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs. New board member Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta, co-founded Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, while Susan Decker, a former president of Yahoo, is the CEO and co-founder of Raftr and sits on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway and Costco. Nick Clegg, the UK's former deputy prime minister, previously served as president of global affairs at Meta and is now a general partner at Hiro Capital. The fresh capital is earmarked for global expansion across Europe, North America, and Asia. Nscale has already announced plans to invest £2 billion into the UK data center industry by 2028, with its first UK site in Loughton expected to be operational by late 2026. The company's flagship data center is a hydro-powered facility in Glomfjord, Norway. Lead investor Aker ASA, a Norwegian engineering firm, will now fully merge its previous joint venture with Nscale into the company to streamline governance and delivery. Co-lead 8090 Industries focuses on investing in systems that enable entire industries to scale. Other notable investors in the round included Dell, Lenovo, and Nokia.
