British AI infrastructure firm Nscale heads toward IPO, raises $3.5 billion in pre-listing financing

Nscale, a UK-based AI infrastructure startup founded just two years ago, could go public as early as later this month. Ahead of the listing it is in talks to secure $3.5 billion in pre-IPO funding, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The company plans to sell $1.5 billion of convertible bonds to a group of investors while simultaneously raising $2 billion in direct financing from Nvidia.

This is not Nvidia’s first bet on Nscale. In March the chip giant joined a $1.1 billion Series B led by investment firm Aker, a round Nscale described as the largest Series B in European history. That followed a $155 million Series A in December 2024. The pace and scale of the fundraising place the company in a category of its own even by the standards of the current infrastructure boom.

Underpinning the momentum is a major agreement with Anthropic valued at a reported $45 billion. Earlier this week reports emerged that Nscale had shown prospective investors projected revenue of roughly $103 billion. According to The Information, that figure does not represent current sales but a forecast based on signed lease contracts with customers — future commitments that have not yet been recognised as accounting revenue.

AI infrastructure startups are experiencing unprecedented growth in an era where compute has become a genuine competitive currency. Nvidia’s deepening involvement — both as a strategic investor and as a potential $2 billion financier ahead of the IPO — underscores how critical the company views Nscale as a channel for demand for its processors. A pre-IPO raise of this magnitude, blending convertible debt with strategic-supplier financing, is not a standard structure and signals the pressure to shore up the balance sheet before hitting the public markets.