AI

AI startup Nscale scores a massive GPU deal with Microsoft

200,000 of Nvidia’s hottest chips are about to get a new home.

by
Ronil Thakkar
October 16, 2025

Image: KnowTechie

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

AI hyperscaler startup Nscale has inked a monster deal with Microsoft to deploy roughly 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs across four data centers, three in Europe and one in the US.

That’s right, 200,000 of Nvidia’s hottest chips are about to get a new home, and Nscale, a company barely old enough to rent a car, is somehow calling the shots.

The GPUs will be delivered through Nscale’s own operations and a joint venture with Aker, one of its big-money backers.

The crown jewel of the deal? A Texas data center leased by Ionic Digital, which alone is getting 104,000 GPUs over the next year and a half.

Nscale plans to bulk up its footprint there to a casual 1.2 gigawatts, enough power to light up a small city or, you know, train a few trillion AI parameters.

Europe’s getting in on the action too: 12,600 GPUs will head to the Start Campus in Portugal by early 2026, 23,000 GPUs will move into Nscale’s Loughton, England site in 2027, and the remaining 52,000 GPUs will ship to Microsoft’s Narvik, Norway campus.

It’s a global GPU party, and everyone’s invited, as long as you’re powered by Azure.

“This agreement confirms Nscale’s place as a partner of choice for the world’s most important technology leaders,” said founder and CEO Josh Payne.

Bold words for a company founded in 2024, but with $1.7 billion already raised from Aker, Nokia, Nvidia, and others, he’s clearly got the receipts.

Payne even hinted at an IPO next year, which would be one of the fastest ascents in AI infrastructure history.

With GPU deals flying left and right, OpenAI just ordered six gigawatts’ worth from AMD, while Nvidia threw $100 billion into its own AI investments, it’s clear the gold rush isn’t slowing down.

Nscale’s move plants it squarely in the mix, proving that in 2025, the real power isn’t in data, it’s in whoever controls the chips.