Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg Join Nscale Board as AI Infrastructure Startup Reaches $14.6B Valuation

As demand continues to grow for data centres capable of providing AI compute at scale, Nvidia-backed British AI infrastructure company Nscale has reached a valuation of $14.6 billion. That makes it one of Europe’s newest decacorns, joining companies such as Helsing and Mistral AI.

Nscale has built its strategy around vertical integration, covering everything from energy and data centres to compute and orchestration software. Its new valuation comes from a $2 billion Series C round, which the company describes as “the largest in European history.” However, that total includes a $433 million pre-Series C SAFE backed by Blue Owl, Dell, Nvidia, and Nokia in October.

The fundraising was supported by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, whose participation has been widely seen as a sign of IPO preparation — and not without reason. Nscale CEO Josh Payne told The New York Times that the company could look to go public “as early as this year” to raise additional capital.

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

Nscale is not new to large funding rounds and major announcements. In September, it announced a $1.1 billion Series B led by Aker. Aker is a publicly traded Norwegian company with interests in energy, and it is also co-leading the Series C alongside New York-based investment firm 8090 Industries.

The companies also agreed that the startup will fully manage Aker’s joint venture with Nscale. Known as “Stargate Norway,” the Norway-based AI infrastructure project is aiming 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 also 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 agreement with Microsoft to deploy roughly 200,000 Nvidia GPUs across three data centres in Europe and one in the United States, in collaboration with Dell.

Dell and Nvidia both participated in Series C, along with Astra Capital, Citadel, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, and Point72. Nscale said it expects the fresh funding to speed up the development of its AI infrastructure across Europe, North America, and Asia, while also helping it grow its engineering and operations teams and strengthen its platform.

Beyond equity financing, the company also raised debt last month through a $1.4 billion delayed-draw term loan secured by GPUs to finance part of its cluster buildout across Europe. It aims to capitalise on growing enterprise demand and access to low-cost renewable energy, while also renewing its commitment to reuse waste heat, build local skills, and invest in regional infrastructure as part of Stargate Norway.