UK cloud infrastructure firms take over 99% of Europe's €5.9bn H1 2026 haul
Nscale and Pure Data Centres led a cloud funding surge that saw UK companies dominate European investment in the first half of 2026.
UK-based cloud infrastructure companies accounted for more than 99 per cent of the roughly €5.9 billion raised by European cloud firms in the first half of 2026, according to analysis from Tech.eu. The figure spans eight transactions, including one undisclosed amount, and was dominated by two London-based companies building the data centres and GPU capacity that underpin AI computing.
Nscale and Pure DC lead the pack
Nscale, which develops AI cloud infrastructure including GPU computing capacity and data centres, raised $4.19 billion across three transactions during the period. This included a $2 billion Series C round in March and two separate debt financing deals in February and May. The company builds large-scale computing facilities, some powered by renewable energy, and is expanding across Europe and North America to meet demand for AI workloads.
Pure Data Centres, backed by Oaktree Capital and headquartered in London, secured $2.7 billion in H1 2026. The hyperscale data centre developer acquires land and builds facilities that it leases to cloud and AI infrastructure operators, and is using the funding to expand across Europe and the Middle East.
Tech.eu notes that debt financing played a significant role in the sector’s total, reflecting the capital-intensive nature of building data centres and AI computing infrastructure.
Smaller players tell a different story
Outside the two UK infrastructure giants, funding in the cloud sector was far more modest and concentrated in cloud management, security and deployment tools, with notable rounds coming from Germany and the Czech Republic.
German cybersecurity firm enclaive, which specialises in confidential computing using secure enclaves to protect data across cloud environments, closed a €4.1 million seed round in February 2026. The company plans to use the funding to expand commercially and grow its engineering team internationally.
Czech platform-as-a-service provider Zerops raised $2 million in seed funding in May 2026, led by Gi21 Capital. The company, which runs on its own bare-metal infrastructure, is also developing tools to let AI coding agents interact directly with cloud infrastructure.
Blocks, a cloud cost management platform, raised $6 million from Speedinvest, Caesar Ventures and several angel investors, including the founders of Flix.
Cast AI, a cloud infrastructure automation company with Lithuanian roots, did not disclose the size of its investment from Pacific Alliance Ventures, but the round pushed its valuation above $1 billion in January 2026, making it Lithuania’s fifth unicorn.
What it means for the UK
The scale of capital flowing into Nscale and Pure Data Centres underlines the UK’s position as Europe’s primary hub for AI computing infrastructure, with investors backing the physical build-out of data centres and GPU capacity rather than software layered on top. The heavy use of debt financing also points to how investors are structuring these capital-intensive bets, treating data centre development more like infrastructure finance than venture capital.
What to watch next
Attention will turn to whether Nscale and Pure Data Centres can deploy this capital quickly enough to meet demand from hyperscale cloud providers, and whether other UK infrastructure players attract comparable sums in the second half of 2026. It remains to be seen if smaller European cloud software companies can close the funding gap with infrastructure-focused rivals.