Nscale doubles London office space as UK staff grows sixfold
Nscale has doubled its London office space as the AI hyperscaler cements its presence in the capital, CityAM can reveal.
The tech startup, which develops data centres for AI firms and is reportedly eyeing a $25bn valuation in an upcoming IPO, has leased out an extra floor in the Mayfair building that houses its headquarters, giving it capacity for as many as 300 staff.
Nscale has ballooned in size from just 70 UK employees in June last year to nearly 450 today, of which around half regularly commute to the London office. More than 40 per cent of those are high-skilled technical jobs, Nscale said. Globally, the firm’s headcount has now surpassed 800.
Imran Shafi, UK Managing Director at Nscale, said: “The level of startup talent that is in the UK – all those AI labs being built – some of these companies could really shape the future of how we think about AI and we’re very excited to be part of that ecosystem and see how we can support those companies.”
Nscale this week signed a letter of intent in support of the government-backed British Open-ended Learning & Discovery Lab (Bold), committing $1m in compute to the project.
Bold is a £30m initiative funded by the UK government to support research into artificial intelligence, working with academics across Oxford, UCL and Imperial College.
Nscale said it was “working to finalize infrastructure, access, and operational arrangements, and are exploring wider opportunities [with Bold] for technical and educational collaboration.”
Shafi, a former Number 10 adviser under Rishi Sunak, said: “What they’re really looking to do is make big bets on the next big discovery in AI and get the best talent in the UK working on this.
“It’s a very exciting time for UK AI research and we’re delighted to be partnering with them.”