Nscale inks massive AI infrastructure deal with Microsoft | TechCrunch

AI hyperscaler startup Nscale has signed a sizable deal with Microsoft to bring Nvidia AI hardware to multiple data centers.

The AI cloud provider announced on Wednesday that it signed a deal with Microsoft to bring approximately 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs to three data centers in Europe and one in the U.S.

These GPUs will be delivered through Nscale-owned operations and through a joint venture with investment company Aker, one of Nscale’s investors.

About half of these GPUs, 104,000, will head to a data center in Texas leased by Ionic Digital, over the next 12 to 18 months. Nscale plans to increase its footprint at this location to 1.2 gigawatts, the company stated.

Nscale will also deploy 12,600 GPUs to the Start Campus data center in Sines, Portugal, starting in the first quarter of 2026.

The deal builds on previous plans with both Microsoft and Aker regarding data centers in Norway and the United Kingdom. Nscale will send 23,000 GPUS to its Loughton, England campus starting in 2027, and send the remaining 52,000 GPUs to Microsoft’s AI campus in Narvik, Norway.

“This agreement confirms Nscale’s place as a partner of choice for the world’s most important technology leaders,” Josh Payne, founder and CEO of Nscale, said in a company press release. “Few companies are equipped to deliver GPU deployments at this scale, but we have the experience and have built the global pipeline to do so.”

It’s a bold claim by Payne, considering that Nscale was founded in 2024. Since its launch, the company has raised more than $1.7 billion from strategic partners including Aker, Nokia and Nvidia. Nscale has also raised from investors like Sandton Capital Partners, G Squared and Point72, among others. Payne told the Financial Times that the company is looking at an IPO as early as the end of next year.

“The pace with which we have expanded our capacity demonstrates both our readiness and our commitment to efficiency, sustainability and providing our customers with the most advanced technology available. It’s a clear signal that Nscale is setting a new standard for how the next wave of AI infrastructure will be delivered,” Payne said in the release.

GPU deals have picked up in recent weeks. OpenAI announced it was purchasing six gigawatts’ worth of chips from AMD last week. OpenAI also recently inked a deal with Nvidia in which Nvidia will invest up to $100 billion in the company in exchange for 10 gigawatts’ worth of chips in September.