Microsoft pulls out of UK data center deal with Nscale, Telegraph reports

Read a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST
FAST

Oct 18 : Microsoft has pulled out of a data center deal with British cloud provider Nscale, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday.

The US tech giant, one of Nscale's two largest customers, recently terminated its agreement for the data center in Loughton, Essex, according to the report.

The newspaper did not specify why Microsoft withdrew from the project, and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.

The Telegraph report said Nscale had faced repeated delays with the project. National power grid officials, it reported, had told Nscale they did not expect a power supply for the data center until the 2030s.

CNA Games

Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time

Buzzword
Create words using the given letters

Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser

Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge

Word Search
Spot as many words as you can
Show More
Show Less

"Our relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-term, and this unfortunate London-wide grid issue has no impact on our other contracts," an Nscale spokesperson told Reuters.

"We remain committed to both the Loughton project and the UK, and we are exploring alternative power sources for the site, in addition to other expansion sites in the UK."

Nscale filed for an initial public offering in the US last month, with Microsoft and Anthropic expected to be its major customers, according to its prospectus.

Nscale provides infrastructure, including compute, power and data centers, as well as software for training and running AI models.

The Nvidia-backed AI group, which competes against CoreWeave, Nebius, Crusoe and Lambda, has grown rapidly since its launch, scaling from $100 million to more than $103 billion in total contracted value in just two-and-a-half years.

Newsletter

Week in Review

Subscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in Review

Our chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday.

Sign up for our newsletters

Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox

Subscribe here

Get the CNA app

Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories

Download here

Get WhatsApp alerts

Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app

Join here