NVIDIA has committed £500 million (~$683 million) to Nscale, a London-based AI infrastructure company spun out of cryptocurrency miner Arkon Energy in 2024, in a deal aimed at rapidly scaling Britain’s compute capacity for artificial intelligence.
Why it matters
- From mining to model training: Nscale began as a crypto-mining offshoot and is refitting high-power, energy-dense facilities for AI workloads—part of a broader industry shift that repurposes mining infrastructure for GPU data centers.
- National AI build-out: The investment dovetails with the UK’s push to expand sovereign AI compute; plans include a major site in Essex and one of the country’s most powerful AI systems.
- Scale targets: Reports indicate goals ranging from tens of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs in the near term—up to 60,000 by 2026—with an Essex facility slated to host ~23,000 GPUs by early 2027.
Key points
- Deal size: £500m (~$683m) equity investment by NVIDIA in Nscale.
- Origins: Nscale was created in May 2024 as a spin-off from Arkon Energy, a crypto-mining firm.
- Policy context: Announced amid a UK push for domestic AI capacity; leadership framed Nscale as a potential national champion.
- Compute roadmap: Targets include rapid GPU deployment across UK sites, with Essex as an anchor location.
Background: The crypto-to-AI pivot
Nscale’s lineage reflects a fast-growing trend: miners and mining-adjacent firms redeploying power contracts, cooling, and real-estate footprints to serve AI. The most prominent example is CoreWeave—itself founded by former crypto miners—which has struck a $9 billion deal to acquire Core Scientific to secure 1.3 GW of power for AI data centers.
What NVIDIA and Nscale are saying (and reporting indicates)
While NVIDIA hasn’t published granular terms beyond the headline figure, UK and trade reports emphasize the government-aligned AI build-out and Nscale’s rapid scaling plan. Coverage from Yahoo Finance characterizes Nscale as a “16-month-old crypto mining spinout,” underlining the unusual speed from stealth to flagship national infrastructure partner.
What comes next
- Near-term build: Commissioning and expansion of UK data-center capacity, with Essex expected to be a centerpiece site.
- Compute availability: If targets are met, enterprises and research institutions could see increased UK-based access to cutting-edge NVIDIA GPUs by 2026–2027, potentially easing capacity bottlenecks.
- Competitive dynamics: The deal intensifies competition among AI cloud (“neocloud”) providers racing to aggregate power, real estate, and GPUs across Europe.