Nscale Raises $1.1B Series B to Power Global AI Infrastructure

In a landmark development for the AI infrastructure sector, UK-based start up Nscale has raised $1.1 billion in Series B funding, marking the largest such round in UK and European history. The monumental investment reflects the soaring global demand for AI infrastructure and underscores the critical role Nscale plays in supporting the next generation of artificial intelligence. The round was led by Norwegian industrial group Aker ASA, which contributed $285 million in cash and land assets for a 9.3% stake in Nscale. Other prominent investors include Nvidia, Nokia, Dell, Fidelity Management, G Squared, Point72, and T.Capital, signalling broad confidence from both technology and investment heavyweights in Nscale’s strategy and vision.

This funding is primarily intended to accelerate Nscale’s expansion across Europe, North America, and the Middle East, with flagship initiatives such as Stargate UK and Stargate Norway already underway. In addition, Nscale and Aker ASA have formed a joint venture to develop a data centre in Narvik, Norway, collaborating with global tech leaders OpenAI and Microsoft.

Analysts view this as a pivotal moment for the European AI ecosystem, demonstrating that companies outside Silicon Valley can lead in delivering advanced, sovereign, and sustainable AI compute infrastructure. This round also highlights the importance of strategic partnerships: Nvidia will provide GPUs for Nscale’s global data centres, while other investors bring expertise across networking, enterprise software, and large-scale deployment.

Nscale plans to deploy up to 300,000 Nvidia GPUs globally, including nearly 59,000 in the UK alone, making it one of the largest AI compute projects outside the United States. This investment is not just financial, it is a vote of confidence in Nscale’s ability to meet the surging demand for generative AI workloads and global AI infrastructure leadership.

Founded in 2023, Nscale operates as a vertically integrated AI-native infrastructure platform, offering compute, storage, networking, and managed software services through company-owned and colocated data centers. Unlike many other AI start ups, Nscale owns its entire hardware and software stack, allowing full control over performance, security, and compliance, which is particularly important for enterprise and government clients.

The company strategically locates its facilities in regions with access to low-cost renewable energy, aligning with sustainability goals and ensuring cost-efficient operations. Nscale’s data centers are designed to handle massive AI models, supporting AI training, fine-tuning, and inference workloads at scale.

One of the company’s flagship projects, Stargate, encompasses hyper-scale facilities in the UK and Norway, each capable of hosting tens of thousands of GPUs. These centres provide the backbone for next-generation AI applications. By combining hardware, energy strategy, and software management, Nscale offers a fully integrated solution for AI infrastructure, differentiating itself from competitors who focus solely on compute provision or cloud services.

The company was founded by Josh Payne, a visionary entrepreneur with a proven record of building high-growth technology companies. From an early age, Payne displayed an exceptional ability to identify emerging trends and translate them into successful business ventures.

Before Nscale, he built companies spanning recruitment, capital markets, and supercomputing infrastructure, developing deep expertise in operations, logistics, and technology deployment. Payne’s experience in energy, data centers, and hardware supply chains provided the foundation for Nscale’s ambitious mission.

His approach blends commercial discipline with visionary execution, enabling him to anticipate market shifts most notably, the transition from traditional GPU computing to AI-native infrastructure optimized for generative AI and large language models. Under his guidance, Nscale has grown rapidly from a start up concept into a global AI infrastructure player.

Payne emphasizes ethical and sustainable operations, ensuring Nscale minimizes environmental impact while maximizing performance. He has said, “AI is reshaping industries, economies, and national strategies but it cannot happen without the physical backbone: the data centers, the GPUs, and the software to orchestrate them.”

Nscale’s primary goal is to establish a global AI-native infrastructure platform capable of supporting the most advanced AI models. The company envisions a network of hyper-scale AI factory data centres across Europe, North America, and the Middle East, each designed to deliver secure, scalable, and sustainable compute power.

Beyond expanding capacity, Nscale is building strategic partnerships with tech leaders like Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI to optimize AI training and inference workloads. The company also invests in software orchestration platforms that maximize GPU utilization and streamline AI model deployment.

Its long-term vision includes addressing the global shortage of AI compute, enabling secure AI development in industries such as healthcare, finance, and government services. By combining energy-efficient facilities, sovereign data hosting, and cutting-edge GPU technology, Nscale aims to become the backbone of global AI infrastructure, supporting enterprises and research institutions in deploying advanced AI solutions safely and efficiently.

The company also plans to expand beyond traditional AI workloads, powering applications in robotics, autonomous systems, and other AI-driven innovations. Its goal is to create an ecosystem where AI innovation can flourish worldwide, ensuring organizations can access high-performance AI infrastructure responsibly and effectively.

With the $1.1 billion Series B funding, Nscale solidifies its position at the forefront of AI infrastructure innovation. Its visionary founder, robust strategic partnerships, and clearly defined global expansion plan place it in a unique position to reshape the AI landscape.

By deploying hundreds of thousands of GPUs across multiple continents, Nscale addresses immediate AI compute needs while laying the foundation for a sustainable, scalable, and secure AI future. This funding milestone is more than financial, it represents Europe’s emergence as a critical hub for AI infrastructure and positions Nscale as a global leader in building the backbone for the AI-driven world of tomorrow.