Trends
Nvidia-backed Nscale secures $1.1B in Europe’s biggest Series B
British-headquartered AI infrastructure firm Nscale has secured $1.1 billion in a new funding round led by Aker ASA, with support from Nvidia, Dell, Nokia and others, marking one of Europe’s biggest ever Series B rounds. The capital will fuel Nscale’s expansion of GPU-driven data centres across Euro…
Headline
British-headquartered AI infrastructure firm Nscale has secured $1.1 billion in a new funding round led by Aker ASA, with support from Nvidia, Dell, Nokia and others, marking one of Europe’s biggest ever Series B rounds. The capital will fuel Nscale’s expansion of GPU-driven…
Context
What happened: Record-breaking raise, global backers — but questions over Nscale’s British identity Nscale , a UK-based AI infrastructure firm, has closed a $1.1 billion Series B round — the largest such round in British and European history. The round was led by Aker ASA, which invested approximately $285 million in a mix of cash and land, acquiring a 9.3 per cent stake in the company. Among the other participants are Nvidia, Dell, Fidelity, Nokia, and G Squared.
Evidence
Pending intelligence enrichment.
Analysis
Nvidia has committed up to $500 million as part of this broader backing, and in return anticipates supplying as many as 300,000 GPU chips to Nscale over time. Part of the financing is tied to infrastructure commitments such as a joint-venture with Aker in Narvik, Norway, which already involves a $6.2 billion contract with Microsoft for access to data-centre capacity. Nscale also aims to back projects in the UK under the “Stargate UK” framework (in collaboration with OpenAI and Nvidia) and to build large scale AI campuses, including a supercomputer in Loughton. Its technology stack spans bare-metal and managed clusters, serverless inference, and AI fine-tuning services. However, some commentators note that although Nscale is headquartered in the UK, it was spun out from Australia’s Arkon Energy — which according to public filings remains its sole shareholder. This raises questions about how “British” the company truly is in terms of ownership. Also read: Meta widens Llama AI access to US allies Also read: Ciena acquires Nubis to power AI data centres
Key Points
- Led by Norwegian industrial group Aker, the funding values Nscale at about $3 billion and includes Nvidia’s pledge to supply up to 300,000 AI chips.
- Nscale aims to position itself as a “sovereign” AI infrastructure provider with local data-centre capacity, but some critics highlight its Australian ownership and question how “British” it truly is.
Actions
Pending intelligence enrichment.
