Nscale Raises $2 Billion in Largest European Series C as Nvidia, Citadel and Jane Street Back AI Infrastructure Expansion
UK-based AI infrastructure hyperscaler Nscale closes a $2 billion Series C at $14.6 billion valuation, adding Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg to its board.
Overview
British AI infrastructure startup Nscale announced on March 9, 2026, that it has closed a $2 billion Series C funding round, the largest Series C in European history. The round values the company at $14.6 billion and brings aboard a roster of high-profile investors and board members as the AI data center buildout race intensifies globally.
What We Know
Norwegian energy conglomerate Aker ASA and investment firm 8090 Industries led the round. Supporting investors include chip giant Nvidia, along with Astra Capital Management, hedge funds Citadel and Point72, market maker Jane Street, and hardware manufacturers Dell, Lenovo, and Nokia. Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan served as placement agents for the transaction.
The round also consolidates Nscale’s existing joint venture with Aker, originally announced in July 2025, fully into the company, with Aker remaining a major shareholder. This follows a rapid funding trajectory: Nscale raised $1.1 billion in September 2025, followed by an additional $433 million just days later.
Three prominent figures are joining the Nscale board: former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo president and current Costco board member Susan Decker, and Nick Clegg, the former UK Deputy Prime Minister who most recently served as Meta’s president of global affairs.
Nscale CEO and founder Josh Payne framed the investment in terms of AI’s infrastructure demands. “The world is changing at a rapid pace,” he said in the company’s press release. “Over the next 5 years, Artificial Intelligence will be integrated into every industry, every product, and every job.”
The company operates a vertically integrated AI infrastructure stack spanning GPU compute, networking, data services, and orchestration software. It currently runs data centers in Glomfjord and Narvik in Norway, Loughton in the UK, and Texas in the United States, with partner-operated facilities in Sines, Portugal and Keflavik, Iceland. Additional sites in Stavanger, Oslo, Slough, North Carolina, and Blonduos, Iceland are listed as available.
What We Don’t Know
Nscale has not disclosed current revenue figures, GPU capacity across its data centers, or a specific timeline for its reported IPO ambitions. The company’s competitive positioning relative to established hyperscalers like CoreWeave, which went public in March 2025, remains to be tested at scale. It is also unclear how much of the $2 billion figure includes a $433 million pre-Series C SAFE backed by Blue Owl, Dell, Nvidia, and Nokia in October 2025.
Analysis
The size of Nscale’s raise reflects a broader conviction among investors that the AI infrastructure market is far from saturated. With Nvidia, Dell, and Lenovo all participating as both investors and likely hardware suppliers, the round carries strategic weight beyond its dollar figure. The addition of Sandberg, Decker, and Clegg to the board signals that the company is preparing for the kind of governance scrutiny that accompanies a potential public listing.
Nscale’s Nordic data center strategy, leveraging Norway’s abundant hydroelectric power and cool climate, positions it to offer lower-carbon AI compute at a time when the environmental footprint of data centers is drawing increasing regulatory attention. Whether that advantage translates into sustained customer demand against US-based competitors with deeper cloud ecosystems remains the central question.