Ant International Raises $1.2B for Global Payment Expansion

Microsoft has withdrawn from a planned U.K. data center that infrastructure provider Nscale was building for it, citing delays in accessing power to bring the facility online. The cancellation comes as Nscale prepares for a public offering this month, and investor concerns about the project's viability are likely to impact the company's IPO prospects.

Anthropic announced it will commit 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund. The move represents a structural commitment to public interest goals, though the source provides limited detail on fund governance, deployment timeline, or specific beneficiaries. The announcement signals Anthropic's positioning on corporate responsibility in the AI sector.

Portland-based Mueon raised $65 million to develop a new server rack architecture for AI data centers. The company claims its design can fit up to ten times more computing capacity into the same power footprint as existing setups. The funding targets a critical constraint in AI infrastructure as demand for data center capacity continues to grow.

The Nordic region is establishing itself as a major European AI infrastructure hub, with countries deploying approximately 1 gigawatt of AI cloud capacity by end of 2027 and leveraging advantages in renewable energy and data governance. Major companies including Spotify, ABB Robotics, and Elisa are building AI applications on NVIDIA infrastructure, while startups raised $2.8 billion in the first half of 2026 and are scaling on open models. The region's transition from producing high-density unicorn startups to building foundational AI infrastructure signals a shift from ambition to operational deployment.