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Nscale raised $3.36B in convertible notes led by Third Point, with Nvidia adding $1B, as the London-based AI cloud firm heads toward a NYSE listing this autumn.
Key Takeaways
- Nscale raised $3.36B in convertible loan notes led by Third Point, announced September 25, 2026.
- The deal splits into $2.36B at closing and a $1B Nvidia commitment due mid-November.
- Nscale filed for a NYSE listing under the ticker NSCL on September 18, 2026.
Lead
Nscale, the London-based AI cloud and data center developer, raised $3.36 billion in pre-IPO convertible financing, it announced on September 25, 2026. Third Point, the hedge fund run by Dan Loeb, led the round. Of the total, $2.36 billion closed immediately and Nvidia committed a further $1 billion, which is due to fund in mid-November. The notes convert automatically when the company completes its initial public offering. Proceeds will go toward building out Nscale's platform of power generation, liquid-cooled data centers and GPU clusters.
Who Invested and How Is the Deal Structured?
The round is a convertible loan note offering, not a priced equity round, so it carries no headline valuation. Conversion price, interest rate and maturity were not disclosed. Goldman Sachs acted as placement agent.
Beyond Third Point and Nvidia, the investor list includes Apollo funds, Citadel, Hudson Bay Capital, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and 8090 Industries. Davidson Kempner, Qube Research & Technologies, Wellington Management and several smaller funds also took part. The mix is heavy on hedge funds and credit investors. These buyers tend to want downside protection and a defined route to liquidity, and a convertible gives them both.
How Does This Compare With the Last Round?
Nscale's last priced round was a $2 billion Series C in March 2026, led by Aker ASA at a $14.6 billion valuation. Nvidia, Citadel, Dell, Nokia, Jane Street and Point72 also joined that round. Six months later, the company is raising more than that Series C total in a single instrument.
The Financial Times has reported an IPO valuation target of about $35 billion, which would be more than double the Series C mark. Nscale has not confirmed that figure. Convertible structures usually defer the pricing argument to the listing, so the new money's real valuation will be set by the public offering rather than by this deal.
What Does Nscale Actually Do?
Nscale builds and operates AI data centers and rents out GPU capacity to large customers. Founder and CEO Josh Payne has taken the company from a start-up of about 40 staff to more than 1,000 employees. As of August 31, 2026, it reported $103.4 billion in contracted value, up from $38 billion at the end of 2025.
Two contracts dominate that figure. A Microsoft agreement through 2033 is valued at $43.8 billion. A roughly $44.6 billion deal with Anthropic covers capacity at the Monarch Compute Campus in West Virginia, and it is contingent on financing and milestones. Together they account for about 85% of the backlog, which concentrates risk in two customers.
Is the Revenue There Yet?
Not at the scale of the backlog. Nscale reported first-half 2026 revenue of $140.6 million against a net loss of $1.02 billion. Active contracted value stood at roughly $2.6 billion, and the company had about 25,000 GPUs running against 461,000 contracted. Five data center sites were active and 12 were contracted.
That gap between signed and delivered capacity explains the financing cadence. Nscale has also taken on a $790 million debt facility for its Narvik campus in Norway in May, a $900 million revolving credit line in July and a roughly $3 billion debt package for Texas and North Carolina campuses on August 31. In July it acquired Anyscale for about $1.65 billion. The new convertible adds equity-linked capital on top of that debt.
What Comes Next for Nscale?
The IPO is the next test. Nscale filed its S-1 on September 18, 2026, with Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley as lead bookrunners. Price range and share count had not been set in the filing, and press reports have put the possible raise at up to $3 billion.
Three things will decide how the listing is received: how quickly active GPU capacity grows toward contracted levels, whether Anthropic's contingent deal clears its financing conditions, and how investors weigh a $1 billion half-year loss against a $103 billion order book. Nvidia's role as both investor and supplier will draw scrutiny, since its capital helps fund demand for its own chips.
Outlook
Nscale has moved in six months from a $14.6 billion Series C to a $3.36 billion convertible round and a filed NYSE offering. The investor roster signals confidence from credit-minded funds, but the converting notes defer valuation until the IPO prices. Execution on the 12 contracted sites, and the conversion of a backlog concentrated in two customers into revenue, will determine whether the public market accepts the roughly $35 billion target.
