What’s up with… Nscale, Nokia, TIP

• AI infra firm Nscale raises $1.1bn from Nvidia, Nokia et al 
• Nokia lands role as preferred networking partner for Nscale 
• Vodafone’s Paco Pignatelli becomes TIP’s new president

In today’s industry news roundup: UK-based AI infrastructure company Nscale has raised $1.1bn from the likes of Nvidia, Nokia and DT to fund its datacentre rollout; as a result, Nokia has become Nscale’s preferred network tech supplier; Vodafone’s Paco Pignatelli takes over from Caroline Chan as TIP’s president; and much more!

UK-based AI infrastructure firm Nscale has raised $1.1bn in what it describes as “the largest Series B in UK and European history”. The new funding will be used to advance Nscale’s deployment of AI infrastructure across Europe, North America and the Middle East, including the ‘AI factory datacentres for projects such as Stargate UK and Stargate Norway. The round was led by Norwegian investment giant Aker ASA and included participation from Sandton Capital, Blue Owl Managed Funds, Dell, Fidelity Management & Research Company, G Squared, Nokia, Nvidia, Point72 and T.Capital, which is Deutsche Telekom’s investment vehicle. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang highlighted his company’s intention to invest in Nscale earlier this month as part of the flurry of AI infrastructure investment activity that marked the ‘Tech Prosperity Deal’ between the US and UK, where Nscale is set to deploy up to 58,640 Nvidia GPUs across various projects with the likes of Microsoft and OpenAI. 

One of the AI infrastructure specialist’s investors, Nokia, has become an “Nscale preferred partner for networking technologies from across its Network Infrastructure portfolio, for the build-out of AI clusters at scale… The partnership agreement will also see Nokia and Nscale jointly drive innovation in the networking stack used in AI clusters and partner globally on joint deployment initiatives,” noted Nokia in this announcement. Nokia CEO Justin Hotard stated: “Demand for the build-out of secure, scalable AI infrastructure in Europe and across the world continues to accelerate. Our partnership with Nscale combines Nokia’s expertise in IP and optical networking with Nscale’s leading infrastructure platform and enables the innovation needed for the future of AI infrastructure.” Nokia is banking on growing demand for its switching, IP and optical product lines from datacentre operators to fuel future sales growth. The vendor recently announced the formation of a new corporate unit, dubbed the Technology and AI Organization (TAO), and appointed former Intel AI and datacentre executive Pallavi Mahajan to lead it – see Nokia taps former Intel exec for new tech, AI role.

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) has appointed Francisco ‘Paco’ Pignatelli, Vodafone Group’s head of Open RAN and a TIP board member, as its new president. Pignatelli takes on the role vacated earlier this month by Caroline Chan, who stepped down from her position as a TIP board member and as president following her departure from Intel. “Francisco has been a valued TIP board member, bringing deep expertise and passion for open and disaggregated networks,” noted TIP in this announcement on LinkedIn. “His leadership will help guide our community as we continue to accelerate innovation, scale deployments and shape the future of connectivity,” it added. With Chan, who was until last month general manager of telco AI and new technologies at Intel, stepping down, Cristina Rodriguez, general manager of Intel’s NEX (Network and Edge Group), which is being spun out as a separate business, has been appointed by Intel to join the TIP board. “Cristina’s experience and leadership in advancing communications technologies will be invaluable as TIP continues its mission to transform the future of global connectivity,” the industry body noted in a recent email newsletter.

Migrating the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sectors from outdated analogue networks to digital infrastructure could result in a £3bn “net economic benefit” across five key sectors by 2040, according to a study by Assembly Research released by UK national operator BT Group. The telco noted that the research evaluated the costs, risks and potential gains from digital migration across energy, water, health (NHS), emergency services and local government, accounting for “the direct cost of upgrading, as well as the rising expense of maintaining legacy systems like the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the 2G mobile network – both decades old and increasingly challenging to support”. The migration to digital systems would also create greater efficiencies in critical sectors, according to the Assembly Research team – for example, preventing 100 unnecessary ambulance trips each day and saving over 600,000 NHS staff hours (comparable to the annual workload of 350 full-time employees). Matthew Howett, founder and CEO of Assembly Research, stated: “For the first time, we've lifted the lid on legacy network migration and worked to understand the scope and scale of how key UK industries are still relying on aging fixed and mobile networks. Our research found that while the energy and water sectors are already well into their migrations, it’s vital that others follow to avoid growing costs and missed efficiencies.” Jon James, CEO of BT Business, added: “This research sends a clear message: Delaying the shift to digital carries a real cost to public services, the environment and the wider economy. Legacy systems are becoming increasingly unreliable and the case for action is urgent. BT is committed to guiding the UK’s critical national infrastructure sectors through this upgrade with the resilience and support they need.”

San Francisco-based Distyl AI, which has developed a platform called Distillery that turns company processes into AI workflows, has raised $175m in its Series B funding round at a $1.8bn valuation. The investors in this round, which follows a $20m Series A round announced in November 2024, include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, DST Global, Coatue and Dell Technologies Capital. “Distyl works with Fortune 500 leaders in healthcare, telecommunications, insurance, manufacturing and financial services to deliver measurable outcomes today while preparing them to re-architect their business models for the AI era,” according to the company.

China’s space infrastructure is “expanding rapidly, supported by commercial and private enterprises, as well as technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, quantum computing and 6G research,” according to ABI Research. The  developments “are tightly integrated with China’s ambitious plans to deliver next-generation connectivity solutions,” added the research firm, which expects China’s serviceable addressable market (SAM) for satellite direct to cellular (D2C) subscription services “could reach 30 million users by 2030, driven by the launch of new major LEO networks”. According to ABI Research analyst Rachel Kong, there are “opportunities in China’s space sector across a wide range of areas, including domestic commercial expansion in private and state-backed constellations, business opportunities in downstream applications, multi-application communication networks, and partnerships in adjacent technology areas. These opportunities are strongly supported by government policies, which are a key driver in ramping up investments and funding for national initiatives. Examples include the Space Silk Road Initiative, the New Infrastructure Policy, and the Space-Ground Integrated Information Network Plan. Currently, two mega constellations, Spacesail and Guowang, are launching satellites with the aim of building networks that could potentially include tens of thousands of satellites,” she added. ABI Research expects the number of active satellites put into orbit by Chinese companies to increase from more than 17,000 in 2025 to over 48,000 by 2032.

Cisco Systems has unveiled a Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio for European companies that are looking for “more control and autonomy over their digital infrastructure and data,” the vendor announced. The new portfolio, which comprises Cisco’s “core product lines, from routing, switching and wireless, to collaboration, and select endpoint devices, enhanced by Cisco and Splunk security and observability solutions”, can be operated by customers “in their own air-gapped, ‘on-prem’ physical environments,” noted the vendor. 

– The staff, TelecomTV