Nscale has signed an expanded AI infrastructure deal with Microsoft that will see it supply the hyperscaler with access to an additional 116,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs in the US and Europe.

The deal, which is reportedly worth $14 billion, will see UK-based Nscale deliver data center capacity at a 240MW facility in Texas, which will eventually house 104,000 GB300s for Microsoft.

Meanwhile, the company has also pledged to deliver up to 12,600 GB300s at the Start Campus data center in Sines, Portugal.

Nscale leases ex-Bitcoin mine for Microsoft

The US deployment will be at a data center Nscale is leasing from Bitcoin miner Ionic Digital in Barstow, Texas.

It will apparently offer 240MW (though Ionic’s announcement says this is actually 234MW), with a phased delivery of Nvidia AI infrastructure services to Microsoft starting in Q3 2026, Nscale said.

Nscale plans to scale its footprint to 1.2GW over time, with Microsoft holding an option on a second phase of 700MW starting in late 2027.

“Nscale is proud to partner with Microsoft on this historic AI infrastructure contract,” said Josh Payne, founder and CEO of Nscale.

“This agreement confirms Nscale’s place as a partner of choice for the world’s most important technology leaders. Few companies are equipped to deliver GPU deployments at this scale, but we have the experience and have built the global pipeline to do so.

“The pace with which we have expanded our capacity demonstrates both our readiness and our commitment to efficiency, sustainability, and providing our customers with the most advanced technology available. It’s a clear signal that Nscale is setting a new standard for how the next wave of AI infrastructure will be delivered.”

Jon Tinter, president of business development and ventures, at Microsoft, said: “Together with Nscale, Microsoft is delivering cutting-edge AI infrastructure for our customers. Our agreement, announced today, demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that our products are available globally with sustainability and scalability in mind. Nscale is an ideal partner for this mission, given its deep expertise in providing AI infrastructure services at scale.”

Nscale is ready to Start

Nscale’s deployment at Start Campus, which is located at Sines, south of Portuguese capital Lisbon, will be up and running in the first quarter of 2026.

The campus will eventually comprise six buildings, but so far, one – SIN01 – is operational. This launched in January 2025.

Start Campus itself has a slightly chequered history, with the project being involved in a corruption scandal that brought down the Portuguese government and saw multiple Start Campus executives arrested amid investigations of alleged “misuse of funds, active and passive corruption by political figures, and influence peddling.”

Since then, the charges against former CEO Afonso Salema have been dropped. Robert Dunn is now the permanent CEO at Start Campus, having served as the interim CEO since November 2023.

Dunn said the Nscale deal was a “defining moment” for Start Campus. “With SIN01 now at full capacity and being expanded on the back of oversubscribed demand, we’ve proven that the Sines Data Campus is one of the most desirable global locations prepared for ultra-dense, next-generation AI workloads,” he said. “We’re proud to partner with Nscale and Nvidia on this flagship deployment. We are also excited to now fully focus on launching our next data centre, the 180MW SIN02 facility, on this pioneering campus.”

Payne added: “AI needs the right environment to thrive – ones that combine scale, resilience, and sustainability. This deployment underlines our ability to deliver advanced infrastructure in the European Union with the technical depth required for today’s most demanding workloads. Partnering with Start Campus ensures we can meet the needs of our customers while laying foundations for the next generation of AI.”

Microsoft and Nscale deepen ties

Last month, Microsoft signed a $6.2bn deal to lease AI compute from Nscale in Norway.

Nscale and Microsoft are also working on a major project in the UK. Announced last month, the two will build a supercomputer with at least 23,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell Ultra GPUs at Nscale’s planned data center in Loughton, Essex.

Though the combined value of the deals hasn’t been disclosed, today’s news takes the value of the contract by Microsoft and Nscale to $14 billion, according to a report in the FT.

Since spinning out of a Bitcoin mining operation last year, Nscale has received more than $1 billion in funding from backers, including Nvidia. In an interview with the FT, CEO Payne said the company hopes to go public in 2026.

“We have public market ambitions, and execution is an enormous focus of mine,” he said.

For its part, Microsoft is increasingly turning to neoclouds like Nscale to expand its compute capacity for AI, with it being a known customer of CoreWeave, and signing an agreement with Nebius Group in September 2024. Set to span over five years, that deal was valued at $17.4bn, and would be for capacity at Nebius’ new data center in Vineland, New Jersey.