Nvidia-Backed Data Center Firm Nscale Files Publicly for US IPO

Nscale, a developer of artificial intelligence data centers that counts Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. among its partners, filed for an initial public offering in New York to tap into AI’s insatiable demand for computing power.

The London-based firm had a net loss of $1.02 billion on revenue of $140.6 million for the six months ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $368.9 million on revenue of $10.4 million in the corresponding period a year earlier, according to its filing Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Spun off from a cryptocurrency mining operation in early 2024, Nscale quickly became one of the most prominent data center newcomers powering the AI boom as a so-called neocloud operator, renting out computing resources to companies developing AI.

It was valued in March at about $14.6 billion, in a Series C funding round led by Aker ASA and investment firm 8090 Industries. Nvidia and Nokia Oyj also participated in the round.

Nscale is seeking to raise as much as $3 billion in the IPO, Bloomberg News reported. It had also been in talks with potential investors to raise as much as $3.5 billion in financing ahead of the listing.

The company has a significant footprint in Europe, including facilities in Norway, Portugal, Iceland and the UK. It agreed in April to add more than 30,000 Nvidia chips to an existing rental agreement with Microsoft at its so-called gigafactory in Narvik, Norway.

Anthropic PBC said in August it has agreed to spend $45 billion to rent AI cloud computing power from the company’s flagship data center development in West Virginia.

Nscale’s board includes former Meta Platforms Inc. executives Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg, who previously served as the UK’s deputy prime minister.

Read More: Sandberg Says Nscale and Its CEO Remind Her of Early Facebook

Companies offering investors exposure to AI infrastructure have lifted this year’s first-time share sale volume to $161.4 billion, the most since 2021, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

SpaceX raised $86.2 billion in its record IPO touting revenue from selling AI processing power to companies including Anthropic, while South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix Inc.’s $26.5 billion listing came with a data center-focused pitch. Brookfield-backed data center firm Csquare Inc. raised $1.2 billion in an IPO in July.

Nscale’s US facilities include a campus in West Virginia and a data center in Texas. It agreed in July to buy San Francisco-based software startup Anyscale in a $1.65 billion deal, to help customers use AI computing power more efficiently.

The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley. The shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NSCL.

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