Fidji Simo joins Nscale board ahead of planned autumn IPO

AI data centre startup Nscale has appointed Fidji Simo, the former head of artificial general intelligence deployment at OpenAI, to its board as it prepares for a planned stock market debut later this year.

Simo, who previously ran Instacart and steered the grocery-delivery firm through its 2023 public listing, joins a heavyweight board at the British-based infrastructure company. Her appointment comes just months after she stepped down from her high-profile executive role at OpenAI in July, citing health reasons, though she continues to advise the artificial intelligence developer on a part-time basis.

Building a heavyweight board

At Nscale, Simo joins a board that already features several prominent tech veterans, including former Meta executives Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg, alongside former Yahoo president Susan Decker. The star-studded lineup underscores the massive ambitions of the young startup.

Founded just two years ago to design, build and run specialised data centres for artificial intelligence, Nscale is reportedly aiming to raise up to $3.5 billion ahead of an initial public offering planned for this autumn. Bloomberg first reported the fundraising target last week, citing unnamed sources.

The race for AI infrastructure

Nscale is attempting to cash in on an insatiable global demand for the high-performance computing power needed to train and run generative AI models. Building and running these facilities is incredibly capital-intensive, which explains why the startup is seeking such a large cash injection before it lists on the public market.

Unlike traditional cloud providers that lease third-party server space, Nscale's business model hinges on vertical integration. The company designs and operates its own facilities from the ground up, tailored specifically for graphics processing unit (GPU) workloads. This approach has seen its valuation rocket over the past two years as tech companies and AI developers compete for scarce hardware and server capacity.

Scaling for the public market

Josh Payne, Nscale’s founder and chief executive, said Simo is uniquely qualified to help the company handle its rapid expansion. He described her as one of the few leaders who understand how to scale products used by billions of people, and the physical systems required to support them.

"Fidji joins a board we’ve built deliberately," Payne said in a statement, highlighting the need for "financial rigour and operating depth" as the company prepares for the transition to the public markets.

Before her brief stint at OpenAI, Simo spent more than a decade at Meta, where she rose to run the core Facebook app. She also sits on the board of e-commerce giant Shopify. Her experience steering Instacart through its own complex IPO is likely to prove particularly valuable to Nscale as it navigates the transition from a private startup to a highly scrutinised public corporation.