Fluidstack, a UK-born startup that builds specialised data centres for artificial intelligence companies, is reportedly in negotiations to raise $1 billion in a funding round that would value the company at $18 billion. According to a Bloomberg report, the round could be led by the quantitative trading firm Jane Street.
This potential deal represents a dramatic acceleration in the company's valuation. In December, Fluidstack was said to be raising approximately $700 million at a valuation of $7.5 billion, a round reportedly led by the AGI-focused fund Situational Awareness. Talks for that earlier round were still ongoing as recently as February, with Google considering a $100 million investment, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Anthropic Deal Fuels Meteoric Rise
The surge in investor interest follows a monumental partnership announced in November. AI giant Anthropic signed a $50 billion deal with Fluidstack to construct custom-designed data centres in Texas and New York. This agreement provides Anthropic, which primarily uses AWS and Google Cloud, with greater control over its own cloud infrastructure to meet soaring demand for its Claude AI model.
"Unlike hyperscalers like AWS, which serve all kinds of computing needs, Fluidstack’s infrastructure is built specifically for AI," the report notes. The deal served as a massive vote of confidence for the previously lesser-known company in the U.S. market.
Strategic Shift to US Market
The significance of the Anthropic partnership prompted a major corporate relocation. Fluidstack, which was spun out of Oxford University and had been a rising star in Europe's AI scene, moved its headquarters from the UK to New York. In a further sign of its US focus, the company recently withdrew from a key €10 billion AI project in France, Bloomberg reported.
Prior to the Anthropic deal, Fluidstack was best known for providing infrastructure to the French AI company Mistral. Its current customer roster also includes Meta, Poolside, and Black Forest Labs.
Investor Backing and Next Steps
The earlier $7.5 billion valuation round was said to be led by Situational Awareness, a fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner. It is backed by Stripe’s Collison brothers, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and AI investor Daniel Gross.
Fluidstack did not respond to a request for comment on the latest funding talks. Should the $1 billion round at an $18 billion valuation be finalised, it would mark one of the most rapid appreciations in value for a private tech company in recent memory, underscoring the intense capital demand within the specialised AI infrastructure sector.