The dramatic rise of U.K.-based neocloud startup Nscale is continuing apace, after the company revealed it raised a $2 billion series C funding round, valuing it at $14.6 billion.
According to Nscale, the series C round is the largest ever recorded in Europe, though that claim is not independently verified. It builds on a $1.1 billion Series B in September, followed by a $433 million pre-series C simple agreement for future equity agreement, a type of contract that gives the investor the right to receive shares later. The latest funding includes the pre-series C.
The sums involved are significant, given that Nscale was only formed in 2024, having been spun out of an Australian bitcoin mining firm. Now it is one of the key players in the ongoing rush to build up AI infrastructure, developing data centers and operating cloud services.
The latest investment was led by Aker USA and 8090 Industries, with significant support from big names such as Nvidia — which has already provided heavy backing — and Nokia, Lenovo, Citadel and Dell.
At the same time as revealing the new funding, Nscale also underscored its growing influence by appointing several high-profile members to its board of directors.
Taking top billing is former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who is joined by another ex-Meta executive, the social media giant’s one-time president of global affairs, Nick Clegg — best known in the U.K. for his stint as the country’s deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015. The other addition is Susan Decker, the former president of Yahoo.
Among Nscale’s deals over the past year is a commitment to deploy 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs to Microsoft, across a handful of data center locations, including in Barstow, Texas; Sines, Portugal; in Loughton, Essex, in the U.K.; and Narvik, Norway.
For the Norwegian project, initially announced as a joint venture with Aker, Nscale now said it will assume full control, although Aker remains a major shareholder in the London-based company.
Nscale is also involved in developing a data center in Keflavik, Iceland, with the U.K.-based Verne Global data center company.
Nscale said it will use the latest investment to accelerate development of infrastructure in Europe, North America and Asia, with a focus on expanding its engineering and operations teams.
“This is the fourth industrial revolution; the world is changing at a rapid pace,” CEO Josh Payne said in a statement. “Over the next five years, artificial intelligence will be integrated into every industry, every product and every job — accelerating drug discovery, extending human life, autonomizing travel and robotics, lifting productivity and driving massive growth.”
Nscale is seen as pursuing an IPO, with Payne previously telling the Financial Times in 2025 that vendor was targeting the “back end of next year [2026].” It’s not clear if that time frame is still on track.
