Fluidstack is looking to raise around $700 million in a funding round that would value the cloud-computing startup at $7 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing familiar with the situation.
Situational Awareness, a firm started by ex-OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, is in talks to lead the round, with Alphabet’s Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) also involved.
Fluidstack, a UK-registered startup that recently relocated its global headquarters to New York, is part of the emerging “neocloud” sector that rents computing power for AI development. This year, the company struck two debt-financed data center deals with crypto miners TeraWulf (WULF) and Cipher Mining (CIFR), with Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) acting as the financial backstop.
The company was also featured in French President Emmanuel Macron’s AI push, announcing plans in February to build a €10 billion ($11.5 billion), 1-gigawatt supercomputer in France by 2026, and lists partners including Meta (META), Honeywell (HON), and multiple AI startups.