Nscale appoints former OpenAI exec Fidji Simo to its board

Nscale, a London AI-infrastructure company, appointed Fidji Simo — formerly OpenAI’s CEO of AGI Deployment — as an independent director, effective immediately.

A named board appointment on the company’s own page is a personnel fact you can file. IPO-round gossip around a $3.5 billion raise stays secondary reporting.

Nscale published “Fidji Simo Joins Nscale Board of Directors” from London. The press page says Simo, former OpenAI chief executive of AGI Deployment — the group that turns research into products people use — was appointed Independent Director, effective immediately. That company page is the primary.

Nscale says Simo most recently led OpenAI’s business and product teams for AGI Deployment and continues as an advisor to OpenAI.

The same bio: she was previously CEO and chair of Instacart, which Nscale says she led to profitability and through its 2023 public listing; she spent a decade at Meta, including as Head of the Facebook App; she currently sits on Shopify’s board.

Josh Payne, Nscale’s founder and CEO, said on the page: “Very few leaders understand what products at that scale demand of the systems underneath them. That’s what we’re building for at Nscale.” He also said the board was built for independence, financial rigor, and operating depth. Those are Payne’s words on Nscale’s press page.

Simo, on the same page: “I’ve seen firsthand that access to compute can determine how fast companies can turn AI breakthroughs into products used by millions of people.” She said the next generation of AI infrastructure “won’t be won on compute alone” but by companies that integrate the full stack — physical infrastructure through software. That is her quote on Nscale’s PR.

Nscale says the appointment follows Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker, and Nick Clegg joining the board earlier in 2026.

About Nscale on the PR: a full-stack AI cloud / vertically integrated AI infrastructure company, founded in 2024, headquartered in London; it says it designs, builds, and operates AI data centres and GPU (graphics processing unit) cloud. That is the company’s self-description.

Same-day TechCrunch and Bloomberg framed the appointment as ahead of a potential or planned IPO (initial public offering). TechCrunch relayed Bloomberg’s earlier unnamed-sources report of a pre-IPO raise of up to $3.5 billion — three and a half billion dollars. Those figures, a fall listing, and any valuation talk are those outlets’ reporting, often from unnamed sources — not on Nscale’s press page and not confirmed facts here.