Nscale is a British AI infrastructure start-up backed by Nvidia, with large contracts from Microsoft. In March 2026 it agreed to buy the company that owns the 2,250-acre Monarch Compute Campus in West Virginia, expected to reach 2 gigawatts of power by early 2028 and 8 gigawatts by 2031. Microsoft has agreed to rent 1.35 gigawatts of servers there starting in 2027.
Nscale's UK flagship site, at Loughton in Essex, tests how far the government will lean on local planning. Loughton Town Council's planning officers said Nscale's proposed changes made the approved site 50 percent bigger, with 50 percent more internal capacity, and called for a new application in March 2026. Epping Forest District Council, the actual decision maker, approved it anyway in June 2026 over objections from the town council and residents; a government minister had written to the council's chief executive the previous November backing the project. Completion has slipped from the end of 2026 to 2027.
In Norway, Nscale's campus at Narvik, above the Arctic Circle, draws on the region's cheap surplus hydropower; its first phase will use about 230 megawatts. The site was originally meant to be the first European stop for OpenAI's Stargate project, but in April 2026 Nscale dropped the Stargate name and said Microsoft, not OpenAI, would be the direct customer there; OpenAI says it will still use the site's capacity through Microsoft.
Nscale's other UK project has stalled. OpenAI said in September 2025 it would build Stargate UK with Nvidia and Nscale at Cobalt Park in North Tyneside, then halted it in April 2026, saying it was waiting for the right "regulation and cost of energy." No construction has started at the site, which already holds about 35 megawatts of older data center capacity.
Nscale sites on record
Grouped by country, then by state or region, biggest first. Open one to see the projects there. The report above may name sites that have no record here yet.
United States1 · 8,000 MW
West Virginia1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch Compute Campus (formerly Mountaineer GigaSystem)Point Pleasant | Nscale | Under construction | 8,000 MW |
Norway4 · 510 MW
Nordland4
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nscale KorgenKorgen | Nscale | Approved | 250 MW | |
| Microsoft Narvik Norway | Nscale | Under construction | 230 MW | |
| Nscale Glomfjord | Nscale | 30 MW | ||
| Nscale FauskeFauske | Nscale | Proposed | Not reported |
United Kingdom2 · 90 MW
England2
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nscale AI Campus LoughtonLoughton | Nscale | Under construction | 90 MW | |
| Stargate UK (Cobalt Park) | Nscale | Suspended | Not reported |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.