Sandberg, Clegg join Nscale board as this ‘Stargate Norway’ startup hits $14.6B valuation

Amid growing demand for data centers that can deliver AI compute at scale, Nvidia-backed British AI infrastructure company Nscale is now valued at $14.6 billion. This makes it one of Europe’s latest decacorns alongside Helsing and Mistral AI.

Nscale has bet on vertical integration, from energy and data centers to compute and orchestration software. Its new valuation stems from a $2 billion Series C, which it calls “the largest in European history,” though the figure includes a $433 million pre-Series C SAFE backed by Blue Owl, Dell, Nvidia and Nokia in October. 

The raise was supported by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, whose involvement has been interpreted as IPO preparation — and not without reason: Nscale CEO Josh Payne told The New York Times his company might seek to go public “as early as this year” to generate more capital.

Alongside its funding and plans, the company also announced that former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo president Susan Decker, and former U.K. deputy prime minister Nick Clegg are joining its board. 

Nscale is no newcomer to big rounds and announcements. In September, it announced a $1.1 billion Series B led by Aker. Aker is a public Norwegian company with interests in energy and is also co-leading the Series C alongside New York-based investment firm 8090 Industries.

The companies also agreed that Aker’s joint venture with Nscale will now be fully managed by the startup. Dubbed “Stargate Norway,” this Norway-based AI infrastructure project has the ambition to run on 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026, with OpenAI as an initial customer.

According to Aker president and CEO, Øyvind Eriksen, who sits on Nscale’s board, “this step strengthens execution by putting delivery and governance under one roof, while keeping continuity for the people and projects already underway.”

Last October, Nscale also signed an expanded deal with Microsoft to bring approximately 200,000 Nvidia GPUs to three data centers in Europe and one in the U.S., in collaboration with Dell. 

Dell and Nvidia both participated in the Series C, as did Astra Capital, Citadel, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, and Point72. Nscale expects the new funding to accelerate the development of its AI infrastructure across Europe, North America, and Asia, while helping the company expand its engineering and operations teams, and strengthen its platform.

Equity aside, the company also raised debt last month, with a $1.4 billion delayed draw term loan backed by GPUs to finance some of its clusters across Europe. It aims to harness rising enterprise demand and low-cost renewable energy while renewing its pledge to reuse waste heat, develop local skills, and invest in regional infrastructure as part of Stargate Norway.