Inside Nscale's Record Series C Raise for AI Infrastructure

Nscale has secured US$2bn in Series C funding to accelerate the global expansion of its AI data centre and compute platform.

The funding round, which represents the largest Series C raise in European history, values the company at US$14.6bn and will support the deployment of new AI infrastructure across Europe, North America and Asia.

Aker ASA and 8090 Industries led the round, with participation from Astra Capital Management, Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, NVIDIA and Point72. According to Nscale, the capital will be deployed to expand its vertically-integrated AI infrastructure stack, which combines GPU compute, networking, data services and orchestration software within large-scale production environments.

Leading the infrastructure buildout

The funding comes as organisations increasingly move AI models from research phases into operational deployments, creating unprecedented demand for scalable infrastructure.

Nscale suggests the primary challenge facing the market has shifted from demand for AI capabilities to the ability to deploy and operate compute infrastructure at scale.

Josh Payne, Founder and CEO of Nscale, says: "This is the fourth industrial revolution; the world is changing at a rapid pace. Over the next five years, artificial intelligence will be integrated into every industry, every product and every job – accelerating drug discovery, extending human life, autonomising travel and robotics, lifting productivity and driving massive growth.

"This is leading to the largest infrastructure buildout in human history. Nscale is leading this buildout. We are building this foundation that the market sits on, the engine of superintelligence."

The rapid growth of AI workloads is reshaping capacity planning across the sector. High-performance GPUs, advanced networking and reliable energy supply are increasingly being integrated into dedicated AI data centre environments to meet the computational demands of modern AI systems.

Governance and leadership

Alongside the funding announcement, Nscale has confirmed the appointment of three new members to its board of directors. 

Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker and Nick Clegg will join the company's leadership team, bringing experience across technology operations, governance and global policy:

• Sheryl is Co-Founder of Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, previously served as COO at Meta and was an early executive at Google.
• Susan is CEO and Co-Founder of Raftr and former President of Yahoo.
• Nick is currently a General Partner at Hiro Capital. He previously served as UK Deputy Prime Minister and President of Global Affairs at Meta.

The trio will join the existing board, which includes Josh Payne, Rael Nurick, Jacob Leschly and Øyvind Eriksen. The appointments are set to add governance and policy expertise as AI infrastructure operators face growing scrutiny around energy consumption, data governance and the regulatory environment surrounding large-scale AI deployments.

Integrating Norwegian operations

Nscale has also confirmed that the Aker Nscale joint venture, announced in January 2025, will be fully integrated into the company.

Under the agreement, Aker will remain a major shareholder while its CEO Øyvind Eriksen continues to serve on the Nscale board.

Øyvind Eriksen, President and CEO of Aker ASA, says: "This step strengthens execution by putting delivery and governance under one roof, while keeping continuity for the people and projects already under way.

"We have full confidence in Nscale's ability to deliver responsibly in Norway over the long term, and we believe this positions the work for faster progress and durable value creation."

Rayyan Islam, Co-Founder and General Partner of investor 8090 Industries, adds: "We are living through a new era defined by AI and the limiting factor is infrastructure. Compute, energy and industrial-scale deployment capacity will determine which nations and companies lead the next generation of technological and economic progress.

"Nscale has built a platform uniquely capable of solving this challenge by vertically integrating the critical layers of AI infrastructure – from energy and data centres to compute and orchestration."

The funding is set to drive the ongoing growth of Nscale’s data centre platform, supporting initiatives such as waste heat recovery, development of local workforce skills and investment in infrastructure across regions in which the company operates.