Aker invests $285m in Nscale's $1.1bn funding round, becomes major shareholder

Aker ASA, through a wholly owned subsidiary, participated in Nscale Global Holdings Ltd.'s oversubscribed $1.1 billion Series B funding round, committing $285 million. This investment, comprising both cash and a portion of Aker's Narvik land portfolio, grants Aker a 9.3% ownership in Nscale on a fully diluted basis, positioning it as one of Nscale's largest shareholders. A potential future earn-out could increase Aker's ownership to 12.2%.

yvind Eriksen, president and chief executive of Aker ASA, will join Nscale's board of directors. The investment aligns with Aker's strategy to benefit from long-term value creation in the AI sector, leveraging Nscale's focus on sovereign-grade AI infrastructure and its GPU-first model.

Further strengthening the collaboration, the Aker-Nscale joint venture, expected to close in Q4, will see Aker's 50% stake convertible into additional Nscale shares at a future IPO. This joint venture has already secured OpenAI and Microsoft as its first customers.