Nscale is the Aker-backed AI hyperscaler spun out of the Norwegian industrial group’s compute business. Under a landmark partnership with Microsoft announced in early 2026, Nscale is deploying approximately 12,600 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs at Start Campus in Sines, making Portugal home to one of Europe’s largest AI compute clusters. The company was valued at roughly $14.6 billion in its March 2026 funding round.
Nscale’s Portuguese footprint runs through Start Campus, the 495 MW data-centre campus being built on the old Sines thermoelectric site by Davidson Kempner and Pioneer Point Partners. Under the Microsoft agreement, Nscale will operate roughly 12,600 NVIDIA GB300 accelerators in Sines to supply dedicated AI capacity for Microsoft’s Azure customers, with deployment phased through 2026 and 2027. The arrangement uses Start Campus’s direct grid connection to the Portuguese renewables system and its seawater-cooling loop from the Atlantic.
Nscale complements this with GPU capacity in Norway and the United States, but Sines is its single largest European deployment and the public anchor for its position as a Microsoft preferred partner. The Aker connection means the Portuguese build benefits from Norwegian industrial execution capability and the same capital group that is behind Aker Horizons and other European energy-transition plays.
Nscale at Sines is the clearest evidence that Portugal has moved from cloud-region candidate to European AI-compute hub. It links Norwegian industrial capital, American hyperscaler demand, and Portuguese renewable power and port infrastructure in a single deal. For the Nordics, it shows how Aker is exporting its energy-to-data-centre thesis to Iberia; for Portugal it locks in a decade of AI workload concentration in Sines and creates adjacent demand for power, connectivity, and skilled engineering labour.
Fractio helps Nordic companies enter the Portuguese market — from market sizing to first sales, hiring, and legal setup.
Talk to Fractio →