Written by: Yang Chen
London data center operator Nscale has officially submitted a listing application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to raise up to $3 billion in New York to expand infrastructure capacity supporting AI computational demand.
Nscale was spun off from a cryptocurrency mining business in early 2024 and has quickly become a leading player in the AI infrastructure sector.
The prospectus shows that as of August 2026, Nscale owns and controls power capacity exceeding 10 gigawatts in its data centers, with a total contract value of approximately $103 billion. The company's partners include NVIDIA and Microsoft.
Latest financial data indicates that the company's revenue is rapidly increasing, but losses are also widening.
For the six months ended June 30, Nscale generated $140.6 million in revenue with a net loss of $1.02 billion; while the same period last year saw revenue of only $10.4 million with a net loss of $368.9 million. The high-speed growth accompanied by substantial capital investment highlights the typical characteristics of the AI infrastructure sector and will become a core topic for investors assessing this IPO.
Since the beginning of this year, the AI infrastructure concept has driven a continuous rebound in global IPO issuance. According to Bloomberg data, the total IPO financing so far this year has reached $161.4 billion, the highest level since 2021. If Nscale successfully completes its listing, it will become another iconic case in this wave.
From Cryptocurrency Mining to AI Compute Hub
Nscale was independently spun off from its cryptocurrency mining business in early 2024 and quickly transformed into a "new cloud" operator, leasing computing resources to AI development enterprises. In just over a year, the company has become one of the most notable emerging forces in the AI data center sector.
In March this year, Nscale completed a Series C financing round, led by Aker ASA and investment firm 8090 Industries, with participation from NVIDIA and Nokia, valuing the company at approximately $14.6 billion.
The prospectus shows that Aker, Sandton Capital Partners, and a trust fund associated with Payne all hold over 5% of the company's shares.
Nscale's board of directors is also noteworthy, including former Meta executive Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg, who previously served as Deputy Prime Minister of the UK.
Secured $45 Billion Leasing Commitment from Anthropic
Nscale has positioned its main facilities as "hyperscale AI hubs," located in Norway, Portugal, Texas, and West Virginia, each with installed power exceeding 200 megawatts.
Among them, the flagship project Monarch compute campus in West Virginia is the largest. The prospectus indicates that the campus covers approximately 2,250 acres, with total power capacity expected to reach 2 gigawatts when operational in the first half of 2028, and plans to expand to about 8 gigawatts by 2031.
In August this year, AI startup Anthropic announced it had agreed to spend $45 billion to lease AI cloud computing resources from the Monarch campus.
In Northern Europe, Nscale agreed in April this year to add over 30,000 NVIDIA chips to its existing lease with Microsoft at its Narvik facility in Norway.
NVIDIA Holds Over 5% Stake
NVIDIA's role in this IPO is particularly crucial, as both a shareholder and supplier, while also being a potential large creditor.
The prospectus shows that Nscale issued warrants to NVIDIA in its Series B financing, making NVIDIA a shareholder with more than a 5% stake, but the shares held by NVIDIA are non-voting shares.
Additionally, Nscale signed a subscription agreement on September 15, agreeing to issue $2.1 billion in unsecured convertible loan notes to investors and also issue $1 billion in unsecured convertible loan notes or non-voting shares to NVIDIA, with the NVIDIA portion set to be settled on November 16.
However, the prospectus also admits in the risk factors section that the company's GPU supply is highly dependent on NVIDIA, and the deep integration between the two poses potential concentration risks.
Acquisition of Software Startup Anyscale
Beyond hardware computational expansion, Nscale is seeking to extend into the software layer to enhance customer efficiency in utilizing AI computational resources.
In July this year, Nscale announced it would acquire San Francisco-based software startup Anyscale for $1.65 billion to help customers more efficiently access AI computational resources.
This acquisition marks a strategic shift from being solely an infrastructure provider to becoming a comprehensive AI computational service provider.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley are acting as lead underwriters for this IPO, with 19 other banks participating in the transaction. Nscale's shares are expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NSCL.
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