Nscale's new IPO filing shows $1.69B quarterly loss as Microsoft slips away

Nscale dropped fresh IPO paperwork Thursday, and the numbers got uglier. The London-based neocloud posted a third-quarter net loss of $1.69 billion on $307.5 million in revenue, with revenue up 1,344% year over year, according to the updated prospectus for its planned U.S. initial public offering. The loss widened from $1.02 billion in the second quarter, when Nscale brought in $140.6 million in revenue, up 1,252%. The company first filed to go public in September and hasn't touched the prospectus since, and it still won't say how much it intends to raise on the New York Stock Exchange.

The road to listing has come with public setbacks, mostly involving Microsoft. The tech giant walked away from an Nscale data center it had planned to use in England, and Darren Hardman, Microsoft's CEO for the U.K. and Ireland, told CNBC in October the call came down to Nscale's ability to get access to electricity. The Financial Times reported Microsoft also decided against renewing a contract with Nscale in Texas. Nscale is still betting on the relationship, saying in its IPO filing that it expects Microsoft to be a 'significant customer in future periods.'

The neocloud market Nscale wants to list into is in tumult. Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO on Thursday after admitting he was unfaithful to his wife, and Nvidia is investigating his relationship with a woman intelligence agencies have called a Chinese spy. CoreWeave, an Nscale rival, pulled back about 7% Thursday after climbing almost 25% a day earlier on strong results, following October pressure on the stock. Fellow neocloud Nebius sank about 17% Thursday while issuing light full-year guidance.

One customer is moving the other way. In late September, Anthropic exercised its right to contract for additional computing power at an Nscale site in West Virginia, according to the filing. Anthropic is itself aiming to go public.