Nscale raises £1.5bn as Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg join board

TL;DR: London-based AI data centre firm Nscale has raised £1.5 billion ($2 billion) in new funding, pushing its valuation to £11 billion ($14.6 billion). Former Meta executives Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg have joined the board. The raise follows an £830 million ($1.1 billion) round last September.

Nscale, the Nvidia-backed data centre company central to the UK government’s AI infrastructure plans, has closed a £1.5 billion ($2 billion) funding round and brought two high-profile former Meta executives onto its board.

The new board members

Sheryl Sandberg, former Meta COO, brings what Nscale describes as “unmatched experience in scaling the world’s most influential technology companies”. Nick Clegg, the former UK Deputy Prime Minister who later served as Meta’s president of global affairs, is credited with “deep expertise at the intersection of technology, policy, and global affairs”.

The company was spun out of Australian bitcoin mining firm Arkon Energy in 2024 and operates data centres across the US and Europe, including in the UK, Portugal, Norway, and Iceland.

UK government connections

Nscale is set to contribute to Stargate UK, a partnership with OpenAI and Nvidia, and has committed to building a supercomputer in Loughton, Essex, as part of the government’s AI infrastructure push. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall called the funding round evidence that “firms are seizing this opportunity to invest, expand and create jobs in this country”.

The raise comes alongside growing questions about AI investment claims. Nvidia’s $100 billion deal with OpenAI collapsed in February, and Oracle and OpenAI scrapped plans to extend a key Stargate US data centre last week.

Looking forward

Nscale’s rapid growth from a September 2025 Series B of £830 million to an £11 billion valuation in six months tracks the pace of AI infrastructure deal-making globally. Whether the company can deliver on its physical commitments, particularly the Loughton supercomputer promised for later this year, will be watched closely given broader concerns about the gap between AI investment announcements and actual infrastructure delivery.