Public investors face concentrated customer risk as Nscale prepares to list on the New York Stock Exchange, because most of the company’s contracted compute capacity is tied to two customers. The British neocloud, spun out of Australian cryptocurrency miner Arkon Energy two years ago, reports over $103 billion in contracts in its IPO filing, but roughly 85% of that value comes from two supply deals.
The filing shows a $43.8 billion agreement with Microsoft to provide compute through 2033, and a separate $44.6 billion arrangement with Anthropic. The Anthropic deal is conditional on Nscale securing financing, and Anthropic retains the ability to cancel or walk away if Nscale fails to meet milestones the filing describes as "stringent."
That customer concentration places Nscale within a broader pattern across AI infrastructure providers. A paper by credit hedge fund Sona Asset Management highlighted heavy dependence on a small number of buyers across the sector, noting a single setback or strategic change by a major customer can ripple through suppliers. Sona pointed to peers with similar exposures, including CoreWeave, which derives 67% of its revenue from Microsoft, and Applied Digital, which earns 67% from Oracle and 30% from CoreWeave.
Nscale plans to seek a $35 billion valuation on the NYSE and aims to raise $3 billion in the offering, according to reporting. Its reported top-line growth is rapid, with revenue of $140.6 million for the six months ended June 30, up from $10.4 million a year earlier, but losses widened sharply, with net losses rising to $1.02 billion from $369 million in the same period.
Financial backing has been sizable and complex. Nvidia agreed to provide $1 billion in convertible debt as part of a larger $3.1 billion financing package, and the company previously reached a $14.6 billion valuation when it raised $2 billion in a Series C led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries. Competitors named in the filing include CoreWeave, Nebius, Lambda and Crusoe, the latter having raised $3.9 billion at a $30.9 billion valuation last week.
Nscale operates data centres in Norway, Portugal, Texas and West Virginia, and its board includes former Meta executives Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg, and former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo. The immediate question for public investors is whether the promise of long-term, large-value contracts offsets the execution and financing risks embedded in a capital-intensive business whose fortunes are closely tied to two dominant customers. The next milestones are the company’s filings and investor reception when the IPO pricing and sale proceed on the NYSE.
