British data center builder Nscale is set to build four new AI data centers for Microsoft, spread across Europe and the United States. The contract, which, according to CNBC and the Financial Times, is worth up to $24 billion, includes the delivery of approximately 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs. It is one of the largest AI infrastructure agreements to date.
Nscale, which was spun off from Australian crypto mining company Arkon Energy last year, focuses entirely on data centers for artificial intelligence. The company already operates a 30-megawatt AI facility in Norway that runs on hydropower and has raised more than $1.7 billion in the past two months from Nvidia and other investors to accelerate its growth.
Four locations
The collaboration with Microsoft encompasses four locations. Construction will begin early next year in Sines, Portugal, where a data center with approximately 12,600 GPUs is planned. In the third quarter of 2026, construction will begin on a much larger campus in Texas, with space for approximately 104,000 GPUs. That location will start with a capacity of 240 megawatts and can eventually scale up to 1.2 gigawatts. Microsoft also retains the option to add another 700 megawatts of capacity from 2027 onwards.
The remaining 75,000 GPUs will be divided between two previously announced projects: a facility in the United Kingdom, at the Loughton AI Campus, and a second site in Norway near Nscale’s existing data center in Narvik.
All four locations will use Nvidia’s new Blackwell Ultra GPUs. These are the most powerful chips the company currently offers. Each Blackwell Ultra has 160 streaming multiprocessors, totaling 132 computing cores per module. It delivers up to 15 petaflops of computing power for AI inferencing. That is about 50 percent more than the previous generation. The GPUs will be used in Nvidia’s GB300 NVL72 systems. These combine 72 GPUs and 36 CPUs with liquid cooling.
Competitor CoreWeave recently announced similar billion-dollar contracts with Meta and OpenAI. This marks the beginning of a clear race between specialized providers of AI computing power.
Nscale aims for IPO
According to founder and CEO Josh Payne, the collaboration positions Nscale among the few companies that can deliver GPU capacity at this scale. He told the Financial Times that Nscale is working on an IPO, possibly in the second half of 2026.
The new agreement builds on existing plans between Microsoft and Nscale, including the development of the UK’s largest AI data center. The collaboration also strengthens the technological ties between the UK and the US, which have attracted increased attention in recent months.
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