Record $1.1B Series B backs Nscale’s AI hyperscaler expansion
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Nscale has closed a record-breaking $1.1 billion Series B round, the largest in European history, to accelerate its AI hyperscaler expansion worldwide. The UK-headquartered company says the fresh capital will drive its AI infrastructure growth, boosting GPU-powered data centers and vertically integrated services across Europe, North America and the Middle East.
This milestone highlights both the rapid acceleration of AI infrastructure demand and the strategic importance of sovereign, energy-efficient platforms built in Europe. It also signals growing opportunities for suppliers, partners, and enterprises needing large-scale compute capacity.
A hyperscaler built for AI
The financing was led by Norwegian investment firm Aker ASA, with backing from existing investors Sandton Capital and new participants including Blue Owl, Dell, Fidelity Management & Research Company, G Squared, Nokia, NVIDIA, Point72 and T.Capital.
Nscale positions itself as an AI-native infrastructure platform, providing compute, networking, storage, and managed services through its owned and colocated data centers. By locating hubs in Norway and smaller metro clusters in key markets, the company leverages low-cost renewable energy and proximity to latency-sensitive workloads.
“We are building the AI-native Infrastructure platform of tomorrow,” said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale. “AI is reshaping industries, economies, and national strategies – but it cannot happen without the physical backbone: the data centres, the GPUs and the software to orchestrate them.”
Strategic partnerships and expansion plans
The raise follows a string of major partnerships. In the UK, Nscale is collaborating with Microsoft, NVIDIA and OpenAI on what it calls the country’s largest AI supercomputer. In Norway, the company has teamed with Aker ASA and OpenAI to launch Stargate Norway, targeting deployment of 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by 2026. A subsequent multi-billion-dollar deal with Microsoft will see large-scale AI infrastructure delivered in Narvik.
Beyond infrastructure, Nscale is rolling out product innovation across the AI stack, including fine-tuning services, inference APIs, orchestration tools and private cloud features.
Industry backers highlight the momentum. Øyvind Eriksen, President & CEO of Aker ASA, said: “AI is reshaping the global economy and redefining the value of renewable energy. With Nscale, we’re backing infrastructure that’s sovereign, scalable and purpose-built to accelerate this transformation.”
Nokia’s CEO Justin Hotard added: “Demand for the build-out of secure, scalable AI infrastructure in Europe and across the world continues to accelerate. Nokia is participating in Nscale’s investment round and announcing a partnership with Nscale to combine our expertise in IP and optical networking with their leading infrastructure platform.”
A European hyperscaler rises
With over 50 data centers already delivered by its leadership team and one of the largest GPU pipelines worldwide, Nscale is positioning itself as a rare European contender to the US and Asia-based hyperscalers. For enterprises and governments seeking sovereign AI capacity, the company aims to provide both scale and compliance with local regulatory and energy requirements.
“Europe needs a Hyperscaler, and Nscale is rising to the challenge,” Payne said.
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