SemiAnalysis
ClusterMAX 2.0 — Unavailable

NScale

Interesting service we cannot verify yet (not launched, sold out, government-only, etc.).

ByJordan NanosDaniel NishballDylan Patel
Published

NScale Quick Stats

ClusterMAX Tier
Unavailable (not yet rated)
Source Rating Cycle
ClusterMAX 2.0
GPUs Offered
GB300
Slurm Support
Not flagged
Kubernetes Support
Not flagged
SOC 2 Mentioned
Not flagged
NCCL Benchmarks
Not in review
Last Updated
Nov 06, 2025

Want to model NScale cluster cost? Calculate H100, H200, B200 & GB200 NVL72 TCO with the ClusterMAX calculator.

NScale is an NVIDIA-backed partner with a huge presence in Stargate Norway, which we have covered extensively in our Datacenter Model: https://semianalysis.com/datacenter-industry-model/. They have announced multi-billion contracts with Microsoft, with the first one in September and follow up with a subsequent announcement in October. These deployments are for Nvidia’s GB300 rack scale solutions.

Unfortunately we have been unable to gain access to any GPUs on the NScale platform, either directly or through publicly advertised partners like Lightning.ai. We regret the difficulties and look forward to testing NScale services in the future.

NScale GPU Cloud FAQ

What tier is NScale in ClusterMAX?

NScale is rated Unavailable tier in the ClusterMAX 2.0 GPU cloud rating system by SemiAnalysis (with the ClusterMAX 2.1 Update applied April 2026). Unavailable is tracked by ClusterMAX but not yet directly verifiable for hands-on testing. Interesting service we cannot verify yet (not launched, sold out, government-only, etc.).

Is NScale SOC 2 Type II certified?

NScale's ClusterMAX review does not flag a SOC 2 Type II attestation as confirmed. SemiAnalysis treats SOC 2 Type II as a baseline expectation for any GPU cloud serving enterprise or regulated AI workloads — see the ClusterMAX criteria page for the full security baseline.

Does NScale support Slurm?

NScale's ClusterMAX review does not call out a first-party managed Slurm offering. Customers wanting Slurm-on-Kubernetes (SUNK, Soperator, Slinky) should compare NScale against providers that explicitly list managed Slurm in their offering — see the ClusterMAX /slurm expectations page for the full bar.

Does NScale support Kubernetes?

NScale's ClusterMAX review does not document a first-party managed Kubernetes service. See the ClusterMAX /k8s expectations page for the managed-Kubernetes bar SemiAnalysis tests against when evaluating GPU cloud providers.

What GPUs does NScale offer?

Based on the SemiAnalysis hands-on review, NScale offers (or has been publicly tied to) the following NVIDIA / AMD GPU SKUs: GB300. Specific inventory, region availability, and on-demand vs reserved access are detailed in the NScale ClusterMAX review.

What is the NCCL all-reduce performance on NScale?

NScale's ClusterMAX review does not yet publish hands-on NCCL all-reduce results. NCCL all-reduce bandwidth is the standard SemiAnalysis benchmark for InfiniBand / RoCE health on GPU clusters — see the ClusterMAX /health-checks page for the full benchmark methodology.

How does NScale compare to CoreWeave?

CoreWeave is the only ClusterMAX Platinum provider, while NScale is rated Unavailable. The NScale review documents the specific gaps versus CoreWeave across the 10 ClusterMAX criteria (Security, Lifecycle, Orchestration, Storage, Networking, Reliability, Monitoring, Pricing, Partnerships, Availability). See the NScale review body and the ClusterMAX /criteria page for the full comparison framework.

Is NScale recommended for LLM training?

NScale's current ClusterMAX rating (Unavailable) means SemiAnalysis does not directly recommend NScale for production LLM training without first addressing the specific gaps called out in the review. See the NScale review for the gating issues and see the ClusterMAX /cloudreview index for currently recommended alternatives in Platinum / Gold / Silver / Bronze.

All ClusterMAX™ 2.0 + 2.1 reviews

Platinum
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Underperforming
Unavailable