A 31-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur has stunned the tech world by raising more than £750m ($1.1bn) to build Britain’s biggest artificial intelligence data centre — despite his company never having completed one before.
Josh Payne’s start-up Nscale, founded just 18 months ago, has secured heavyweight backing from Nvidia, Nokia and Norwegian investment giant Aker. The deal catapults the business into the ranks of Britain’s most valuable AI players, with an implied valuation of $3bn.
The Essex-based project, being developed with Microsoft, has been billed as the UK’s largest AI supercomputer. Nscale is also planning a chain of futuristic “Stargate” AI hubs with OpenAI, starting in Newcastle.
Nscale traces its roots back to Payne’s earlier venture, Arkon Energy, a Bitcoin mining outfit. The company has converted some of its crypto mining facilities in Norway into data centres and claims its leadership team has experience building more than 50 such sites.
The group now intends to spend billions on Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI chips to fuel a global network of facilities. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has personally endorsed Payne, telling him: “I’ll go on record as to say I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to him,” after gifting him a bottle of Johnnie Walker whisky. Huang predicted Nscale could go from “zero to $50bn” in revenues.
Payne said the investment would “rapidly accelerate the build-out of secure, compliant and energy-efficient AI infrastructure”, adding: “Europe needs a hyperscaler, and Nscale is rising to the challenge.”
Technology minister Kanishka Narayan hailed the deal as proof Britain can compete as a global AI hub: “By attracting global expertise and investment, it is building the essential infrastructure for the UK to compete internationally, drive growth, and create jobs.”
Other backers include Fidelity, Blue Owl, Sandton Capital, G Squared, Point72, T.Capital and Dell.