Nscale Adds Fidji Simo to Board as Reported IPO Plans Loom

Nscale has appointed former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo as an independent director, effective immediately. The board move adds a product leader with public-company experience to a business that builds the data centers and cloud services behind AI computing.

The London-headquartered company describes itself as a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider. It designs, builds and operates AI data centers, while delivering GPU cloud services to AI labs and enterprises; campuses are under development in Norway and the United States.

From AI deployment to infrastructure oversight

Simo most recently served as OpenAI’s CEO of AGI Deployment, leading the business and product teams responsible for bringing the lab’s research to users. She continues to advise OpenAI. Nscale CEO Josh Payne said her experience includes understanding what products used by billions of people demand from the systems underneath them.

The background Nscale is adding

• Simo was Instacart’s chair and CEO, leading the company to profitability and through its 2023 public listing.
• She spent a decade at Meta, including as head of the Facebook app, with oversight of News Feed, Video, Groups, Marketplace and Ads.
• She also serves on Shopify’s board of directors.

“The next generation of AI infrastructure won't be won on compute alone. It will be won by companies that integrate the entire stack.”

Fidji Simo, in Nscale’s announcement

A broader board for a physical business

Simo joins Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker and Nick Clegg, whose additions to the board Nscale announced earlier this year. Her arrival extends a board-building effort at a company whose work spans physical data-center construction and software-delivered computing capacity.

Public-market plans remain prospective

The appointment comes against reported plans for a fall IPO. TechCrunch reported that Nscale was anticipated to pursue a listing and, citing Bloomberg’s unnamed sources, said the company was seeking up to $3.5 billion ahead of it. Those financing plans remain reported rather than confirmed terms.

What has changed immediately is Nscale’s governance. The company has added a director whose career links large-scale consumer products, AI deployment and board oversight to the infrastructure systems it is trying to build.