Nscale Hires Meta’s Justin Osofsky to Be COO Ahead of IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Nscale, the artificial intelligence infrastructure company, hired a long-time Meta Platforms Inc. executive to be its chief operating officer, to accelerate a rapid expansion connected to its upcoming initial public offering, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The new COO, Justin Osofksy, worked at Meta for 18 years in various executive roles and was most recently its chief partnerships officer. He will report to Chief Executive Officer Josh Payne and oversee the company's global operations, said the person, who declined to be named discussing non-public information.

Nscale, a developer of AI data centers that counts Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. among its partners, filed in September for an initial public offering in New York to fund the equipment satisfying AI's insatiable demand for computing power. Spun off from a cryptocurrency mining operation in early 2024, the London-based company quickly became one of the most prominent data center newcomers powering the AI boom as a so-called neo-cloud operator, renting out computing resources to companies developing AI.

Nscale is seeking to raise as much as $3 billion in the IPO, Bloomberg News has reported.

Osofsky joins a group of Meta veterans helping lead the company. Former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is on Nscale's board and helped recruit former head of global affairs Nick Clegg, as well as former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo. Sandberg has compared Payne's thinking and leadership to that of her prior boss, Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.