Europe’s Largest-Ever Series B for AI Infrastructure Emerges

Recently, UK-based AI infrastructure company Nscale announced a $1.1 billion Series B funding round, led by Norway’s Aker ASA.

 

 

Existing investor Thornton Capital continued to participate, joined by new investors BlueCat Capital, Dell Technologies, Fidelity, G Squared, Nokia, Nvidia, Point72, and T. Capital.

$1.1 Billion, a Record-Breaking Series B

Cross-referenced filings with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and PitchBook data confirm this as the largest Series B for AI infrastructure in the UK and Europe to date, and the third-largest global AI hardware financing in 2024, trailing only OpenAI’s $6.6 billion and Anthropic’s $4 billion rounds.  

 

Nscale did not disclose its post-money valuation. However, citing two investors “directly involved,” reported a $3.2 billion valuation, up from $2.1 billion pre-round, implying a 34% dilution.  

 

 

Norway’s industrial holding giant Aker ASA invested $400 million for a 12.5% stake and secured a board seat, with the investment made through its 2021-established Aker Capital arm. New investors’ contributions included Nvidia ($150 million), Dell Technologies ($100 million), Nokia ($50 million), Fidelity ($100 million), Point72 ($80 million), G Squared ($70 million), and BlueCat Capital ($50 million).  

 

Existing investor Thornton Capital added $50 million, remaining the largest institutional shareholder, though its total stake dropped to 18%.  

 

Of the funds, 70% will support data center capital expenditures from 2025-2027, 20% will go to GPU and network R&D, and 10% will fund Nordic renewable energy infrastructure. Nscale’s CFO, David Macleod, said in an interview that by the end of 2025, the company plans to deploy 25,000 H100-equivalent GPUs, corresponding to a 90 MW facility, with sites in Mo i Rana, Norway, and Teesside Freeport, UK.

Less Than 5 Years Old, Nearly $1.8 Billion Raised

Founded in 2020 by Joshua Payne and Sarah McElroy, Nscale emerged from a shared vision. Payne, formerly at DeepMind managing large-scale training clusters, and McElroy, ex-ARM data center network architecture director, met at a 2019 London Meetup. They realized “the UK lacked a true 10,000-GPU cluster for developers,” quit their jobs, and started ScaleDC, rebranding to Nscale in 2022.

 

Before this round, Nscale raised two prior rounds:  

• A March 2021 seed round of £3.2 million (~$4.4 million), co-led by Episode 1 and Seedcamp, at a £16 million valuation, funding a 5 MW modular data center prototype.  
• A June 2022 Series A of $100 million, led by Thornton Capital ($70 million) with £30 million (~$37 million) from the UK government’s Future Fund: Breakthrough via British Patient Capital, at a $650 million valuation, funding the first phase of a 32 MW Teesside campus.  

 

Including this $1.1 billion round, Nscale has raised ~$1.7532 billion in under five years.  

 

Per unaudited management reports, Nscale’s 2023 revenue was $43 million with a 42% gross margin and a $21 million net loss. In H1 2024, revenue hit $55 million, surpassing 2023’s full-year total, with an ARR of $89 million. Of its 63 disclosed paying clients, eight are generative AI unicorns, with the largest single client accounting for 14% of revenue.  

 

Nscale currently employs 218 people globally, with 97 in R&D (44%) and 42 holding PhDs.