Pointing the way to the "next CoreWeave"! AI computing power leasing new force Nscale attracts huge amounts of money, raising 2 billion US dollars in just three months.

Media reports citing knowledgeable sources revealed that Nscale, a cloud AI computing power rental startup based in the UK, is in talks with Wall Street institutional investors to raise approximately $2 billion. This company, focused on AI computing power rental, is only slightly more than three months away from its last round of financing. The rapid pace of fundraising even surpasses OpenAI, highlighting the continuous surge in global AI computing power demand, forcing Nscale to accelerate its efforts to expand its AI computing power infrastructure by "replenishing ammunition." Previously, the startup completed two highly successful rounds of financing in September and October, valued at approximately $1.1 billion and $433 million, respectively. The $1.1 billion round was proven to be the largest B-series financing in European history. Sources with knowledge of the matter stated that the large-scale new cloud service provider focusing on AI computing power is collaborating with Wall Street financial giants Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and JPMorgan Chase to conduct financing activities. Due to discussions involving confidential information, the sources requested to remain anonymous. The UK startup Nscale raised over $1.5 billion in two rounds of financing in September and October, and recently announced partnerships with "AI chip leader" NVIDIA Corporation and AI application leader OpenAI. Nscale recently completed a total of over $1.5 billion in financing in September and October and is now in talks for a new round of funding of approximately $2 billion, with an interval of "slightly over three months," reflecting the capital-intensive nature of this "new cloud/GPU computing power rental and actual delivery" business, necessitating continuous funding to secure GPU, power, and core equipment delivery capabilities for the entire AI data center. Sources stated that the financing discussions are still ongoing, and the startup may decide not to proceed with the transaction. Nscale, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. This new cloud startup, focusing on cloud AI computing power infrastructure rental, is a typical player in the "AI computing power infrastructure layer." Nscale, based in the UK, can roughly be compared to CoreWeave, a cloud AI computing power rental giant often dubbed as the "adoptive son of NVIDIA Corporation," with a valuation of $38.5 billion in the US stock market. Some investors are already envisioning this new generation "AI computing power rental arms dealer" Nscale as the "next CoreWeave." Backed by NVIDIA Corporation, Nscale emerged in 2024 from a cryptocurrency mining company, joining the so-called "neoclouds" cloud AI computing power rental camp to provide channels for enterprises that need specialized AI computing power or larger AI computing power infrastructure to obtain physical delivery or cloud-based AI computing power infrastructure rental. Nscale's core revenue logic typically comes from two types: "long-term/reserved computing power and infrastructure service contracts," where clients pay for "deterministic capacity" (similar to "slotting/bundling" AI GPU computing power cluster facility actual delivery or long-term rental), plus service fees for operations, high-performance networks, storage devices, and cloud hosting delivery. Nscale has publicly disclosed several multi-year physical AI computing power infrastructure service delivery arrangements with Microsoft Corporation (such as delivering around 12,600 NVIDIA GB300AI GPU computing power devices in Portugal starting from Q1 2026, and providing larger and more comprehensive AI infrastructure services to Microsoft Corporation). The second type is "pay-as-you-go cloud AI computing power rental/long-term exclusive usage revenue: Public Cloud/Serverless inference/Fine-tuning products are usually billed based on the actual usage duration of cloud AI GPU computing power clusters, inference call volume, bandwidth/high-performance storage devices, etc. It is understood that US tech giant Microsoft Corporation is investing $10 billion to build a data center in Portugal, and is partnering with Nscale and a local partner in Portugal to advance the project. Microsoft Corporation also plans to lease larger-scale AI computing power capacity from Nscale in Norway and the UK. This new cloud startup has undertaken several crucial senior management recruitment initiatives in recent months, with some investors seeing this as crucial for its potential initial public offering (IPO). Nscale recruited Lauren Hurwitz from US-based "AI+ data center" leader Palantir Technologies Inc. as Chief Operating Officer this month. In December, the company appointed longtime banker Alice Takhtajan from Wall Street financial giant JPMorgan Chase as Chief Financial Officer and Nidhi Chappell, a former executive at Microsoft Corporation, as Nscale's Chief of AI Computing Power Infrastructure Business. Chappell previously led Microsoft Corporation's Azure AI and high-performance computing infrastructure business. The in-depth investment and business cooperation between NVIDIA Corporation and Nscale, as well as their deep collaboration with OpenAI in large-scale AI infrastructure projects in Europe (such as the first phase of the Norway "Stargate Norway" project including 100,000 NVIDIA Corporation AI GPU devices and establishing OpenAI as the first large-scale AI application development customer), along with their collaboration with Microsoft Corporation on computing power and data center construction, are strengthening their market positioning in the "AI GPU cloud computing infrastructure cluster platform." From publicly disclosed information, Nscale, based in the UK, and "NVIDIA Corporation's adoptive son" CoreWeave have highly similar business models, both focused on AI training/inference and providing AI computing power infrastructure based on physical AI data center construction/rental services or cloud-based rental systems. Nscale, CoreWeave, and Nebius Group NV, listed on the US stock market, are all in the neocloud (new cloud) track. CoreWeave successfully went public with a financing scale of $1.57 billion in late March 2025. Although its stock price has significantly declined from its historical high of $187 per share in June, it is currently trading at around twice its $40 IPO price. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the cloud service provider Nebius Group NV's stock price has more than doubled in the past year, mainly due to investors acknowledging its high-profile partnerships with tech giants like Microsoft Corporation. Nebius Group NV's market value was approximately $24.5 billion at the close of the US stock market on Thursday. Nscale aims to become the next CoreWeave In a recent statement, Nscale's CEO Josh Payne said, "We are creating one of the largest global cloud platforms for AI in its class, specifically designed to meet the surging demand for AI computing power and achieve significant breakthroughs on an unprecedented scale." "This will enable Nscale to provide our customer base with scarce and highly sought-after computing power, accelerating the rapid construction of secure, compliant, energy-efficient, and efficient artificial intelligence computing power infrastructure." Under the leadership of Huang Renxun, NVIDIA Corporation's investment and deep cooperation with Nscale, as well as their deep collaboration with OpenAI in large-scale AI infrastructure projects in Europe, along with their computing power and data center construction cooperation with Microsoft Corporation, are strengthening their market positioning in the platformization of the "AI GPU cloud computing infrastructure cluster." From the disclosed information, Nscale, based in the UK, and the "NVIDIA Corporation's adoptive son" CoreWeave have business models highly similar to each other, focusing on AI training/inference and providing AI computing power infrastructure based on physical AI data center construction/rental services or cloud-based rental systems. Nscale, CoreWeave, and Nebius Group NV can all be seen in the neocloud track. CoreWeave successfully went public with a financing scale of $1.57 billion in late March 2025. Although its stock price has significantly declined from its historical high of $187 per share in June, it is currently trading at around twice its $40 IPO price. The current global demand for AI computing power resources is undeniably showing an explosive expansion trend. This is why leaders in cloud AI computing power rental like Fluidstack and CoreWeave have seen continuous valuation expansion this year. The demand for AI computing power resources closely related to AI training/inference has pushed the capacity of underlying computing power infrastructure clusters to the limit, even with the ongoing expansion of large AI data centers unable to meet the incredibly strong global computing power demand. After Alphabet Inc. Class C launched the Gemini3 AI application ecosystem in late November, this cutting-edge AI application software quickly gained popularity globally, driving a surge in AI computing power demand from Alphabet Inc. Class C. The Gemini3 series products brought in a massive amount of AI token processing volume upon release, leading Alphabet Inc. Class C to significantly reduce the free access to Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro, as well as implementing temporary limits for Pro subscribers. In addition, recent trade export data from South Korea has shown continued strong demand for HBM storage systems and enterprise SSDs, further validating the "AI frenzy still in its early stages of building AI computing power infrastructure in short supply" narrative on Wall Street.