Nscale Seeks $3.5 Billion in Pre-IPO Financing Amid AI Compute Surge

London-based AI infrastructure firm Nscale is currently in negotiations to raise $3.5 billion in pre-IPO financing, according to reports surfacing on Friday. The company, which has rapidly expanded its footprint in the AI compute sector, is reportedly looking to secure $1.5 billion through the sale of convertible notes, while simultaneously seeking an additional $2 billion in financing from Nvidia. This capital raise comes as Nscale prepares for a potential initial public offering that could occur as early as later this month, marking a significant milestone for the two-year-old startup.

The move follows a period of intense growth for Nscale, which recently finalized a $45 billion compute deal with Anthropic. The company has been actively communicating its scale to potential investors, citing a projected revenue figure of approximately $103 billion based on signed customer leases. While these figures represent long-term contracted revenue rather than current sales, they underscore the aggressive expansion strategy Nscale is employing to capture market share in the highly competitive AI infrastructure landscape.

Beyond its broader financing efforts, Nscale has solidified its position in the robotics sector through a major multi-year agreement with humanoid robotics company Figure. Under the terms of the deal, Nscale will supply at least $3.5 billion in AI cloud compute capacity to Figure, with the potential for that commitment to scale beyond $6 billion. As part of the arrangement, Nscale has also taken an undisclosed equity stake in Figure, effectively becoming the startup's preferred compute provider.

This partnership is designed to support Figure’s intensive training requirements for its AI model, Helix. The collaboration will leverage up to 100,000 Nvidia GPUs, with the initial systems expected to be deployed in the second half of 2027 at Nscale’s facility in Barstow, Texas. Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock noted that the company’s models require massive compute resources to improve, stating, "Our AI model, Helix, becomes more capable the same way every learned system does: with more data and compute."

Nvidia’s involvement in the Nscale-Figure partnership highlights the company's strategy of embedding itself across the AI supply chain. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described the arrangement as a "robotics flywheel," involving the training of models on Nvidia hardware, validation through simulation software, and deployment on Nvidia-powered robots. This ecosystem approach allows Nvidia to maintain a central role in the development of humanoid robotics, which has seen a massive influx of capital in 2026.

However, the circular nature of these investments has drawn scrutiny from some market observers. Wall Street analysts have raised concerns regarding arrangements where infrastructure providers invest in the very customers purchasing their compute capacity, suggesting that such deals may artificially inflate demand metrics. Despite these questions, the momentum in the sector remains high, with humanoid robotics startups raising $8.6 billion so far in 2026, nearly double the total funding recorded in all of 2025.

Nscale’s ability to secure large-scale financing has been a defining feature of its short history. In March 2026, the company closed a $2 billion Series C round at a $14.6 billion valuation, following a $1.1 billion Series B round led by Aker in 2025. Additionally, the firm recently secured approximately $3 billion in debt financing to accelerate the construction of GPU campuses in Texas and North Carolina. These capital injections are intended to support the company's massive infrastructure buildout.

Nscale’s aggressive growth is mirrored by its competitors, as the race for AI compute capacity intensifies. The company has told prospective investors that it has secured roughly $51 billion in contracted revenue, a figure that serves as a cornerstone of its pitch for an upcoming US IPO. As the company moves toward public markets, the focus will likely shift from capital accumulation to the execution of its massive infrastructure projects and the long-term viability of its customer contracts.

The broader humanoid robotics sector is experiencing a period of unprecedented investment, with companies like Skild AI, Apptronik, and Physical Intelligence securing billions in funding. Figure itself previously closed a Series C round exceeding $1 billion at a $39 billion valuation in September 2025, backed by major industry players including Microsoft, Intel Capital, and Salesforce. This influx of capital is driven by the belief that humanoid robots will eventually be capable of performing complex labor in industrial and commercial settings.

Despite the optimism, the industry faces a significant challenge in proving the economic sustainability of these robots. As companies move from factory demos to real-world deployment, the pressure to demonstrate that these machines can generate sufficient value to cover their substantial compute and development costs will increase. The success of Nscale’s infrastructure model will ultimately depend on whether its customers, such as Figure, can successfully commercialize their technology at scale.