Microsoft Scraps UK Data Center Deal With Nscale, Telegraph Says Bloomberg · Bloomberg Rebecca Smith Sun, October 18, 2026 at 4:31 AM EDT 3 min read MSFT -1.93% ANTH.PVT Trade MSFT on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. has pulled out of a UK data center deal with British neocloud Nscale at a critical time for the startup's initial public offering hopes, the Telegraph reported.
White House Turmoil Erupts as Trump Axes Zacharia, Backs Wiles
Ambani Taps Massive Reliance Workforce to Boost Jio's Record IPO
Trump's New White House Press Secretary Out After Five Days
Trump Halts New Russia Energy Sanctions to Ease Diesel Costs
Judge Threatens Trump With Sanctions to Testify in BBC Lawsuit
The newspaper did not provide a specific reason for why the US tech giant had pulled the plug on the deal in Loughton, Essex, though it said the site has been contending with a series of delays. Authorities have told Nscale they don't expect a power supply to the facility until the 2030s, it added.
Nscale's flagship site in Norway is also six months behind schedule, with only 6.4 megawatts of the intended 30-megawatt data center up and running.
Nscale relies on Microsoft and Anthropic for around 85% of its contracts, according to an IPO filing, and the former had been set to become the anchor tenant at Nscale's first British data center in Essex.
Microsoft's withdrawal would mark a setback for the company that's seeking to raise as much as $3 billion in an IPO as soon as this month, and which was already contending with investor jitters over the risks of the wider artificial intelligence buildout.
Nscale is one of the most prominent neoclouds, a new group of companies seeking to build huge computer complexes for AI. They want to cash in on the hundreds of billions of dollars big tech companies have pledged to spend on the technology and are a key part of the AI boom's supply chain.
An Nscale spokesman told the Telegraph: "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.
"Our relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-term, and this unfortunate London-wide grid issue has no impact on our other contracts."
Microsoft did not comment to the Telegraph and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg outside usual business hours.
The backdrop to Nscale's IPO ambitions has turned gloomier in recent days, with fellow neocloud CoreWeave Inc. in the spotlight last week after the co-founder said the company was exploring ways to borrow in investment-grade debt markets, where there are vast pools of money from insurers to tap.
Investors had already grown cautious of AI computing suppliers due to the tens of billions of dollars they and their customers are borrowing to finance the massive buildout of data center capacity.
CoreWeave shares plunged in the first three sessions of the week, then bounced back somewhat, before concern returned on Friday, leading to the the stock's worst week since November with a 25% drop.
That also came in the wake of Australian data center company Firmus scrapping its plans for an IPO after the deal failed to garner enough support for the marketed share price.
Trinity Rodman's Mega Contract Is Tilting the Playing Field in Women's Sports
The ROI of an MBA Hasn't Changed Much, But Costs Now Top $300,000
Female Athletes Are Fed Up Being Gaslit by Sneaker Giants
Unraveling the Many Layers of the Elizabeth Holmes Documentary
