Nscale doubles London office space as UK staff grows sixfold
Key Takeaways
- •Nscale leased an additional floor in its Mayfair headquarters building, effectively doubling its London office space.
- •The expanded office can accommodate as many as 300 staff, reflecting the company’s rapid growth in the UK.
- •Nscale’s UK headcount has increased from 70 in June last year to nearly 450, with more than 40% of those roles classified as high-skilled technical jobs.
- •The company’s global workforce has now exceeded 800 employees.
- •Nscale signed a letter of intent to support the government-backed Bold AI research project with $1m in compute.
Nscale has doubled its London office space as the AI hyperscaler cements its presence in the capital, City AM 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 an extra floor in the Mayfair building that houses its headquarters, giving it capacity for as many as 300 staff.
Nscale has expanded from 70 UK employees in June last year to nearly 450 today, with around half of them regularly commuting to the London office. More than 40 per cent of those roles are high-skilled technical jobs, according to the company. Globally, Nscale’s headcount has now passed 800.
The expansion underscores how demand for AI infrastructure is translating into larger on-the-ground operations in London, where the company is building out both engineering capacity and a physical base to support a fast-growing workforce.
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.”
This week, Nscale 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.”
The partnership adds another sign of how UK AI research projects are drawing in private-sector compute support, with access to large-scale infrastructure increasingly central to academic work in the field.
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.”
