Nscale completes $2 billion Series C funding, setting a European record, but progress on the UK flagship data center project is uncertain

Gate News: On March 10, UK AI computing infrastructure company Nscale announced the completion of a $2 billion Series C funding round, valuing the company at $14.6 billion. The company states this is the largest Series C round in European history. The round was led by Norwegian energy group Aker ASA and investment firm 8090 Industries, with participation from Nvidia, Dell, Nokia, Citadel, Jane Street, Point72, Lenovo, Astra Capital Management, and Linden Advisors. Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan served as placement agents. The round includes a $433 million pre-Series C SAFE from October last year.

Nscale also announced three new board members: former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg (now co-founder of Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners), former Meta Global Affairs President and UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (now general partner at Hiro Capital), and former Yahoo President Susan Decker (currently on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway and other companies).

Founded in 2024, Nscale operates data centers in the UK, US, Norway, Portugal, and Iceland, providing vertically integrated AI infrastructure from GPU computing, networking, to data services and orchestration software. Last summer, in collaboration with Aker and OpenAI, they built the Stargate brand data center near the Arctic Circle in Norway. In October, they reached a $14 billion expansion partnership with Microsoft.

However, on the same day as the funding announcement, a survey revealed doubts about the progress of Nscale’s flagship project announced in January last year. Located in Loughton, north of London, the project is positioned as the “UK’s largest sovereign AI data center” and is part of Nscale’s $2.5 billion investment pledge in the UK, originally scheduled to be operational by Q4 2026. But when reporters visited in February, the site was still being used as a staging area by a scaffolding company. Nscale only submitted a planning application at the end of February after media inquiries, and land registry records show it has not yet been registered as the landowner. The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology stated that Nscale’s $2.5 billion UK investment pledge is “not an official contract but an expression of intent,” and the government “is not actively auditing these commitments.” Nscale’s 2025 annual report has also been overdue for submission.