Nscale Taps Former OpenAI Executive Fidji Simo for Board Ahead of Fall IPO
The U.K. AI data center startup has recruited Simo, who previously held the No. 2 position at OpenAI, to join its board as it prepares for a public offering.
Nscale, a closely watched artificial intelligence data center operator based in the United Kingdom, has brought former OpenAI, Meta, and Instacart executive Fidji Simo onto its board of directors.
Simo's appointment adds to a roster that already includes prominent figures such as Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker, and Nick Clegg. The board expansion comes as Nscale prepares for what is expected to be an IPO in the coming fall.
At OpenAI, Simo held the position of CEO of AGI deployment, making her the second-ranking executive at the organization. She departed from the AI research company in July, citing personal health concerns. Despite her departure, she continues to provide advisory services to OpenAI in a limited capacity. Her career also includes serving as chair and CEO of Instacart, a role in which she oversaw the company's transition to public markets in 2023. During her tenure at Meta, which spanned more than a decade, she held leadership positions including head of the Facebook app. Additionally, she maintains a seat on Shopify's board.
According to Josh Payne, who serves as Nscale's founder and chief executive, Simo represents a rare combination of leaders with deep knowledge of scaling products to serve billions of users and the infrastructure requirements such scale demands. "That's what we're building for at Nscale," Payne stated. "Fidji joins a board we've built deliberately, with the experience of scaling platforms to the largest in the world, and the independence, financial rigor and operating depth to which companies at this scale are held."
Since its founding just two years ago, Nscale has experienced rapid growth driven by surging demand for AI computing infrastructure. The company designs, constructs, and operates data centers specifically engineered for artificial intelligence workloads. According to Bloomberg reporting from the previous week, citing unnamed individuals with knowledge of the matter, Nscale is pursuing a funding round that could reach $3.5 billion in advance of its planned public listing.
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