Nick Clegg joins Britain’s biggest data centre business

Company Overview - NScale is a tech start-up that has rapidly gained a valuation of $15 billion (£11 billion) after raising $2 billion in funding, making it one of Britain's most valuable tech companies [4][6] - The company was spun out of a cryptocurrency mining business and is focused on building AI data centers to meet surging demand [4][6] Leadership Changes - Sir Nick Clegg and Sheryl Sandberg have joined NScale's board, with Clegg previously serving as Meta's president of global affairs and Sandberg as Mark Zuckerberg's second-in-command [2][3] - Clegg's departure from Meta occurred shortly before Donald Trump's election, while Sandberg left in 2022 to focus on charity work [3] Funding and Financial Milestones - NScale's recent $2 billion funding round is noted as Europe's largest "Series C" funding round, following a previous $1 billion raised six months earlier [5] - The funding was led by Norwegian energy giant Aker and US investment firm 8090 Industries, with participation from Nvidia, Dell, and Nokia [4][5] Expansion Plans - NScale plans to build the largest AI data center in Britain, located in Essex, under a partnership with Microsoft, and is also set to operate OpenAI's "Stargate" project in the UK [6] - The company has announced plans for additional sites in Norway, the US, and Portugal [6] Market Position and Challenges - NScale is categorized as a "neocloud" business, aiming to compete with major cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google [6] - Despite its rapid growth and funding success, NScale has faced scrutiny for not yet having constructed an AI data center [6][8]