UK data centre startup Nscale is eyeing an IPO in 2026 as it inks a new $14bn deal to supply Microsoft with Nvidia chips.
Founded less than 18 months ago, UK-based Nscale has had a bumper few months, securing $1.5bn in funding and announcing partnerships with tech giants including OpenAI and Nvidia.
Nscale also has its sights set on an IPO, founder and CEO Josh Payne told the Financial Times on Wednesday.
“We have public market ambitions, and execution is an enormous focus of mine,” he said, adding he hoped to go public in the “back end of next year”.
The startup, which runs and leases data centre capacity specifically for AI uses, said on Wednesday it would deploy around 104k of Nvidia’s GB300 GPUs at an AI campus in Texas for Microsoft in the next 12-18 months.
Nscale will also deliver around 12,600 GB300 chips at a data centre in Portugal, building on previously announced plans to roll out tens of thousands of Nvidia’s chips at sites in Norway and the UK.
The value of the deal was not disclosed, but based on an existing contract announced by Nscale in November bringing in $6.2bn for 52k Nvidia chips, the new deal would likely be worth up to $14bn in revenue.
Founded in 2024 as a spinout from a crypto mining company, Nscale will also close another round of private funding in the near future, Payne said, due to “overwhelming demand” from investors.
In January Nscale said it would invest £2.5bn into UK data centre infrastructure over the next three years.
In September, the company said it would spend its fresh funding on deploying AI infrastructure across Europe, North America and the Middle East. The fresh funds gave the startup a valuation of $3.1bn, multiple media outlets report.
