Nscale adds former OpenAI exec Fidji Simo to its board ahead of potential IPO
techcrunch ·
Fidji Simo, a former executive at OpenAI, Meta, and Instacart, has been appointed to the board of Nscale, a U.K.-based AI data center startup. She joins a board that already includes Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker, and Nick Clegg, as Nscale prepares for an anticipated initial public offering this fall. Simo previously served as CEO of AGI Deployment at OpenAI, effectively the company’s second-ranking executive, before leaving in July for health reasons; she continues to advise OpenAI part-time. Earlier in her career, she was chair and CEO of Instacart, leading it through its 2023 IPO, and spent over a decade at Meta, where she headed the Facebook app. She also serves on Shopify’s board. Nscale founder and CEO Josh Payne said Simo understands scaling products used by billions of people and the demands those products place on underlying systems, which he said is what Nscale is building for. Nscale, founded two years ago, designs, builds, and operates AI data centers and has seen its valuation rise sharply amid booming demand for AI infrastructure. According to Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, the startup is reportedly seeking to raise up to $3.5 billion ahead of its planned IPO.
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