Nscale appoints Fidji Simo to board before possible IPO
Nscale adds Fidji Simo to its board
U.K.-based AI data-centre startup Nscale has appointed Fidji Simo, a former executive at OpenAI, Meta and Instacart, to its board. The appointment comes as the company is reportedly seeking to raise up to $3.5 billion ahead of a potential IPO this autumn.
Simo joins Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker and Nick Clegg on Nscale’s board. The company designs, builds and operates AI data centres, a segment benefiting from demand for infrastructure used to develop and run artificial-intelligence systems.
At OpenAI, Simo served as CEO of AGI Deployment, a role described as effectively the AI lab’s second-most senior executive. She left OpenAI in July, citing health reasons, but continues to advise the company on a part-time basis.
Experience spanning platforms, commerce and public markets
Before joining OpenAI, Simo was chair and chief executive of Instacart, where she led the company through its 2023 IPO. She spent more than a decade at Meta and was head of the Facebook app. She also serves on Shopify’s board.
Her departure from the AI lab was shaped by the circumstances described in Simo’s departure from OpenAI while she continues to provide OpenAI with part-time advice. The board role at Nscale places her experience in product scaling and public-company preparation alongside an infrastructure business preparing for its own possible market debut.
Nscale founder and CEO Josh Payne said Simo understands the challenge of scaling products used by billions of people and the demands such products place on underlying systems. He said the company is building for those requirements.
Board composition as Nscale pursues expansion
Payne said Nscale had deliberately assembled a board with experience scaling major platforms, as well as independence, financial rigour and operating depth. The latest addition follows rapid growth in Nscale’s valuation since the company was founded two years ago.
Bloomberg reported last week, citing unnamed sources, that Nscale is trying to raise as much as $3.5 billion before its planned IPO. The company has not announced the financing or an IPO timetable in the information available.
For businesses evaluating AI infrastructure partners, the appointment is a reason to assess whether a provider’s operational leadership, governance and financing plans are keeping pace with the scale of the workloads it intends to support.