Nscale closes 2 billion dollar Series C round, Europe's largest venture capital raise in history for AI infrastructure builder.
Nscale, a U.K.-based AI infrastructure hyperscaler, announced on March 9, 2026, a $2 billion Series C funding round led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries. This round values the company at $14.6 billion. The funding was supported by Astra Capital Management, Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Point72. The capital will accelerate Nscale's global development of vertically integrated AI infrastructure—spanning GPU compute, networking, data services, and orchestration software—across Europe, North America, and Asia.
Josh Payne, CEO and Founder of Nscale, framed the opportunity in broad terms: "This is the fourth industrial revolution; the world is changing at a rapid pace. Over the next 5 years, Artificial Intelligence will be integrated into every industry, every product, and every job. Accelerating drug discovery, extending human life, autonomizing travel and robotics, lifting productivity, and driving massive growth. This is leading to the largest infrastructure buildout in human history." He emphasized that "Nscale is leading this buildout. We are building this foundation that the market sits on, the engine of superintelligence."
Nscale welcomed three new Directors to its board: Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker, and Nick Clegg. Sandberg, co-founder of Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners and former Chief Operating Officer of Meta and early executive at Google, brings expertise in scaling technology companies and global operations. Decker, CEO and co-founder of Raftr and former President of Yahoo, Inc., serves on the boards of Costco Wholesale Corporation, Berkshire Hathaway, Vail Resorts, Chime, Vox Media, and Automattic, contributing financial acumen and governance expertise. Clegg, a General Partner at Hiro Capital and former UK Deputy Prime Minister and former President of Global Affairs at Meta, brings deep expertise at the intersection of technology, policy, and global affairs. They join the existing board of Josh Payne, Rael Nurick, Jacob Leschly, and Øyvind Eriksen.
Coinciding with the Series C round, Nscale has completed an agreement with Aker to fully consolidate the Aker Nscale joint venture—originally announced in July 2025—into Nscale. Øyvind Eriksen, President and CEO of Aker ASA, stated: "This step strengthens execution by putting delivery and governance under one roof, while keeping continuity for the people and projects already underway. We have full confidence in Nscale's ability to deliver responsibly in Norway over the long term, and we believe this positions the work for faster progress and durable value creation." Aker remains a leading shareholder with Eriksen continuing to serve on the Nscale Board, and all existing joint venture projects continue as fully operational parts of Nscale. The company's commitment to waste heat reuse, local skills development, and regional infrastructure investment remains unchanged.
Rayyan Islam, Co-founder and General Partner of 8090 Industries, underscored the market dynamics: "We are living through a new era defined by AI, and the limiting factor is infrastructure. Compute, energy, and industrial-scale deployment capacity will determine which nations and companies lead the next generation of technological and economic progress. Nscale has built a platform uniquely capable of solving this challenge by vertically integrating the critical layers of AI infrastructure—from energy and data centers to compute and orchestration. At 8090 Industries, we invest in the systems that enable entire industries to scale and are proud to partner with Josh and the Nscale team as they build the foundational backbone for the global AI economy." Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan served as joint placement agents for the capital raise, inclusive of the Pre-Series C SAFE.