Fluidstack Seeks Fresh Funding As It Accelerates U.S. Push

Fluidstack is reportedly pursuing a $1 billion financing round that would value the AI-focused data center builder at about $18 billion, according to people familiar with the talks. The possible round, which Bloomberg said could be led by trading firm Jane Street, would lift the company’s private worth to more than twice what it was reportedly targeting late last year.

The company’s fundraising comes months after reports that it was seeking roughly $700 million at a $7.5 billion valuation in December. That earlier plan, said sources at the time, involved investors tied to an AGI-focused fund started by a former OpenAI researcher and drew interest from several high-profile backers. Negotiations for that round were said to be continuing into February, with one major cloud provider weighing a contribution of $100 million.

Fluidstack has drawn attention because it builds data centers tailored for large-scale AI workloads, rather than the general-purpose cloud services offered by hyperscalers. In November, Anthropic disclosed a multiyear, $50 billion agreement to commission Fluidstack to construct bespoke facilities in Texas and New York — a commitment that has helped vault the company into the U.S. market and prompted it to move its headquarters from the U.K. to New York.

The startup also stepped away from a marquee 10 billion-euro project in France recently, a shift that industry watchers say underscores its pivot to American demand. Analysts note investors are betting that companies training and serving modern models will prefer dedicated infrastructure to secure performance and pricing control. But they caution this strategy also requires heavy upfront capital and long-term customer contracts to pay off.

Fluidstack lists customers that include Anthropic, Meta, Poolside and Black Forest Labs, and previously supplied infrastructure to Mistral. A person with knowledge of the discussions described investor interest as driven by both revenue hopes and the tight market for specialized AI capacity. The company did not reply to a request for comment.