Josh Payne

Josh Payne is the founder and CEO of Nscale, a London-based AI infrastructure hyperscaler recognized as a significant player in the European technology sector. Before establishing Nscale, Payne worked in coal mines, where he spent downtime reading books on entrepreneurship. He later launched a recruitment platform connecting construction workers with jobs across Australia, which introduced him to large infrastructure projects and energy markets. This experience led to roles in renewable energy investing and cryptocurrency mining, where Payne identified the growing importance of large-scale computing facilities as an efficient use of surplus electricity from renewable energy projects.

Nscale was co-founded by Payne and Nathan Townsend as an offshoot of Arkon Energy, initially providing infrastructure for crypto mining. The company later transitioned to focus exclusively on AI infrastructure solutions, positioning itself as a specialist provider for leading AI companies. Nscale develops foundational infrastructure to support advanced AI capabilities, including reasoning, autonomy, and emergent technologies. Payne's expertise spans energy, data centers, and hardware supply chains, combining commercial strategy with operational execution.

Nscale completed a Series B investment round, raising $1.1 billion from companies such as NVIDIA, Nokia, and Dell, with additional participation from Aker. The company subsequently secured $2 billion in Series C funding, led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with a valuation of $14.6 billion. Investors included Astra Capital Management, Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Point72. The board of directors expanded to include Sheryl Sandberg, co-founder of Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners and former Facebook/Meta COO; Susan Decker, CEO and co-founder of Raftr; and former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Nscale also secured a $900 million revolving credit facility and agreed to acquire distributed AI software firm Anyscale for approximately $1.65 billion. According to Payne, Nscale builds and owns every layer of its platform, from power and data centers to compute and software, offering a vertically integrated AI cloud platform. The acquisition of Anyscale extends this offering with managed services for scalable AI workloads. Nscale is expanding toward 10 GW of data center capacity and nearly 289,000 active and contracted GPUs, including approximately 194,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin chips.

Payne is recognized as a leading voice in global AI infrastructure, frequently speaking at industry forums such as SXSW London and CNBC events. His career reflects a consistent ability to anticipate market shifts in GPUs, AI, and infrastructure, drawing on a background that spans from Australian coal mines to leadership in the technology industry. Payne provides insights on entrepreneurship, the future of AI, and the infrastructure developments shaping the global economy.