Nscale, a full-stack AI cloud platform that integrates software, compute, and power for AI training and inference, announced on September 11, 2026 that it has appointed Fidji Simo as an Independent Director on its board of directors, effective immediately, according to Nscale's press release.
Simo most recently served as CEO of AGI Deployment at OpenAI, a role from which she continues to advise the company, according to the press release. Before that, she was CEO and Chair of Instacart, where she led the company through its 2023 initial public offering, according to Nscale's announcement. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade heading the Facebook app at Meta, held mobile-advertising roles at the company, and began her career at eBay, according to the same release.
"Fidji is one of the most accomplished product leaders in tech, having built products used by billions of people around the world," Nscale CEO Josh Payne said in the press release announcing the appointment. Simo, in the same release, described the next generation of AI infrastructure as something that will be won not by compute alone, but by companies that integrate the entire technology stack.
Nscale's press release does not mention any IPO plans for the company, and Nscale has not formally announced an IPO or set a date for one.
Reported IPO Preparations
Separately from the board appointment, Nscale has been reported to be preparing for a potential U.S. stock market listing. According to a TechCrunch report citing Bloomberg, the company was seeking roughly $3.5 billion in pre-IPO financing as of September 4, 2026, including $1.5 billion in convertible notes and an additional $2 billion in Nvidia-linked financing. The same report noted that Nscale had raised $1.1 billion in a Series B round led by the Aker investment fund in March 2026, following a $155 million Series A round in December 2024.
The same TechCrunch report also cited a $45 billion contract Nscale had signed with Anthropic. Regarding a widely cited $103 billion figure tied to that deal, TechCrunch, citing The Information, reported that this is not current revenue or sales, but a projection Nscale had presented to potential investors based on signed customer leases.
As of this reporting, Nscale's IPO remains a reported plan rather than a confirmed public offering, and the company has not formally announced an IPO or a target date.
Board Appointment Amid Company Growth
Simo's appointment brings a board member with experience scaling consumer technology products and guiding a company through a public listing, following her role leading Instacart to its 2023 IPO, according to Nscale's press release. Nscale's press release does not state any connection between the appointment and the company's financing or listing plans.