UK AI Startup Nscale Rapidly Scaling to Challenge Nvidia Dominance
LONDON – September 12,2025 – A little-known UK-based artificial intelligence startup,nscale,is emerging as a significant challenger to Nvidia’s dominance in the AI infrastructure space,aggressively building out data center capacity and attracting considerable investment. Founded by former Arkon executive chairman and battery future Acquisition Corp. operating chief, Chris Payne, nscale is aiming to deploy 50,000 GPUs by the end of 2025 and 150,000 by the end of next year, a move that has caught the attention of industry observers and nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Nscale’s rapid ascent comes as demand for AI computing power surges, fueled by the development of large language models and other AI applications. The company is focused on deploying high-density GPU clusters, addressing a key challenge Payne identified in a December fundraising video: “The key challenges that we see in the market is the significant increase in density at the GPU level.”
Currently operating 32 data centers with 250,000 GPUs, Nscale is pursuing an aspiring expansion plan.The company was attempting to raise $1.8 billion earlier this year through a private credit deal led by Goldman Sachs, following what Payne described as “one of the largest Series As raised in U.K., european history.” This funding is earmarked for deploying up to 4,000 additional GPUs in its Norway data center and developing up to 180 megawatts of new capacity.
The competitive landscape is heating up. CoreWeave, another major player in the AI infrastructure market, reported having “about 2.2 gigawatts of capacity that’s coming online” and had raised $12.4 billion in debt and over $1 billion in equity financing as of the end of 2024.CoreWeave recently announced a $1.5 billion bond sale in july, following a $2 billion debt offering in May.
Nscale’s aggressive growth strategy underscores the increasing demand for alternative AI infrastructure providers as companies seek to reduce reliance on a limited number of suppliers and secure access to critical GPU resources.Payne believes the funding will allow Nscale to “scale up materially” and become “one of the largest players in Europe.”
