Microsoft가 Nscale과의 계약에서 철수했다. 이 계약에는 Nvidia 칩 23,000개와 지연된 Loughton(에식스) 캠퍼스의 앵커 테넌트 역할이 포함된 것으로 알려졌다. 전력망 연결 지연으로 전력 공급 시점이 2030년대로 밀려났으며, 이번 철수로 Nscale의 300억~350억 달러 규모 IPO 계획도 불투명해졌다.

Microsoft's withdrawal from Nscale's delayed Essex datacentre project threatens the AI infrastructure company's planned $35 billion IPO and highlights the UK's power-grid constraints.

Microsoft has withdrawn from a deal to use a datacentre in Essex being developed by British AI infrastructure company Nscale.

The US technology giant had been due to become the anchor tenant at Nscale's first UK datacentre in Loughton, Essex, where it had agreed to rent 23,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin chips. Microsoft recently notified the company that it was terminating the agreement. The withdrawal threatens to complicate Nscale's proposed New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) flotation.

Last month, the London-headquartered company filed to list on the NYSE, seeking to raise billions of dollars despite growing investor concerns about the cost and profitability of the AI infrastructure boom.

Nscale has been privately valued at $15 billion and hopes to achieve a stock market valuation of more than twice that amount. However, while the company recorded a substantial increase in revenue in the first half of 2026, its IPO filing shows a net loss of £755 million ($1.2 billion).

**Microsoft withdrawal challenges UK AI ambitions**

The UK government has championed the Essex development as key to Britain's AI ambitions, but repeated delays and difficulties securing a power supply have hampered progress. Grid officials have reportedly told Nscale that the site may not receive power until the 2030s, delaying its ability to operate commercially.

An Nscale spokesman said the company remained committed to the Essex development, was investigating alternative power supplies, and was exploring other opportunities to expand its UK operations.

"Our relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-term, and this unfortunate London-wide grid issue has no impact on our other contracts," the spokesman said.

Britain's high electricity costs and lengthy waits for grid connections have raised concerns about the country's ability to attract large-scale AI infrastructure investment. In April, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, suspended plans for a proposed AI facility with Nscale on Tyneside, citing the UK's high electricity prices.

**Nvidia support offers a boost to Nscale**

Nscale was established in 2024 after being spun out of Australian bitcoin mining infrastructure company Arkon Energy. Since then, it has grown rapidly into one of Europe's most heavily funded datacentre businesses.

The company provides computing capacity, electricity infrastructure, datacentres and software for developing and operating AI models. It operates across 14 regions and has a pipeline of power capacity exceeding 10 gigawatts. At the end of August, Nscale reported 7 megawatts (MW) of active computing capacity in its own datacentres, alongside a further 48MW operating in rented facilities.

Nvidia has become a major source of financial and commercial support for Nscale. The chipmaker supplies Nscale with AI processors, purchases computing capacity from the company, and has invested more than $2 billion in the business.

Microsoft accounts for more than 40% of Nscale's $103 billion in contracted revenue, although the Essex project is understood to represent only a small share of that figure. Anthropic is another significant customer.

Nscale is also facing delays at a major datacentre project in Glomfjord, Norway, where only a fraction of the planned 30MW of capacity is operational. The company is reportedly exposed to substantial financial penalties as a result.

**Computing says:**

As part of our annual cloud/AI sustainability research, Penny Horwood examined AI-native clouds in June and wrote an article warning that Nscale (among other neoclouds such as CoreWeave) was building too slowly, relying on borrowed money, and depending on highly concentrated customer demand.

Microsoft's withdrawal from Loughton is yet another warning about the growing gap between operational, billable capacity today and the revenue backlogs of the future. It also highlights how uneasy hyperscalers are becoming about lengthening delays in receiving any return on their vast capital outlays on AI infrastructure.

The wider market showed signs of reaching the same conclusion last week. CoreWeave's rising borrowing costs, the collapse of Firmus's flotation plans in Australia, and the re-emergence of the phrase "credit default swaps" across various news sites suggest that investors may finally be reappraising the risks they have exposed themselves (and all of us) to by financing the buildout of AI infrastructure on such a vast scale.

The collapse of the Nscale and Microsoft deal also presents ministers, who held it up a year ago as evidence of the UK being a player on the global AI stage, with yet another headache. It highlights the extent to which grid capacity is throttling the infrastructure building this country desperately needs.

It also cuts through the rhetoric to show that, until the business fundamentals of this sector catch up with reality, it is not fit to play the role it has been allocated in Britain's national economic story.