For the first time, ABI Research, a global technology intelligence firm, has published a dedicated competitive ranking for neocloud providers, independently evaluating 14 vendors for their innovation and implementation in the market. ABI’s methodology reflects what enterprises value most: the ability to deploy cutting edge workloads and deliver them reliably at scale.
Nscale ranked #1 overall; earning Overall Leader, Top Innovator, and Top Implementer. That result reflects our deliberate focus as an AI hyperscaler, building and operating cloud AI at scale. From supply chain and interconnect fabric to platform architecture and partner ecosystem, we have engineered every layer to perform cohesively, running tens of thousands of GPUs globally for enterprise customers.
“Being ranked #1 by ABI Research validates the unique value of Nscale’s full-stack, vertically integrated platform. Our enterprise-grade platform and AI services make it easier to train, orchestrate, fine-tune, and deploy models, while our strong partner ecosystem helps customers deploy faster and operate with confidence.” - Dan Bathurst, Chief Product Officer, Nscale
Scale that's already on the ground
ABI Research scored Nscale a perfect 10 for maximum distributed cluster scale. The reasoning was straightforward: scale claims need proof points, and ours are concrete. Nscale designs, builds, and operates AI data centers across the world, optimized for advanced model training and inference; from our Glomfjord site in Norway’s arctic circle, to our 100% renewable-powered hyperscale site at the Start Campus data center in Sines on Portugal’s Atlantic coast, to our AI data center in West Texas that is designed to grow to 1.2GW of capacity. Our data centers combine multi-megawatt power, engineered cooling, and dense GPU server systems to meet the demands of advanced AI for enterprises, governments, and mission-critical workloads.
That distinction matters for the teams building on our infrastructure. When your platform supports large, high-bandwidth GPU fabrics, model teams can focus on outcomes, exploring larger models, denser datasets, and more ambitious training runs without being constrained by node count or interconnect topology.
Hardware on demand
Capacity only matters if it is there when needed. ABI Research scored Nscale 9 out of 10 for GPU availability, noting that "most on-demand jobs typically start within minutes, with reservation options for large training workloads."
Nscale reduces supply and schedule risk by owning and operating our own optimized AI data centers and by securing preferential GPU allocations. Our full stack ownership enables customers to hit their GPU targets faster, gaining predictable procurement pipelines, earlier GPU availability, and more rapid end-to-end deployment. Dedicated racks and bare metal servers ensure customers never “queue up” for GPUs or storage.
For product teams with fixed release dates, the need for instant GPU availability is crucial. It preserves timelines, prevents costly rework from paused training runs, and means that infrastructure never becomes the reason a launch slips.
A platform, not just a rack
ABI Research recognised the productized AI platform Nscale has built, including training clusters, an inference service, fine-tuning, and a model library. It noted that a mature optimization stack of this kind "can deliver 20 to 40 percent better throughput without changing hardware." For customers, that translates into faster runs and improved token economics, freeing teams to spend more time on important model quality improvements and less time on infrastructure tuning.
On the broader platform integration depth, ABI Research noted that Nscale’s platform integrates Kubernetes and Slurm workflows “into a unified control plane with development tools and lifecycle management baked into the same vertically-integrated stack.” Our platform design reduces the operational work required to bring models into production. Customers choose Nscale because of the need for less custom engineering, clearer governance, and faster time-to-value, particularly crucial for companies that need to move from prototype to production without having to build the connective tissue themselves.
High-performance connectivity for scale
Raw compute is only as powerful as the network that connects it. At scale, inter-node communication becomes a crucial binding constraint and is the difference between a cluster that trains efficiently and one that spends half its cycles waiting. ABI Research scored Nscale 9 out of 10 for Interconnect Bandwidth and Topology, noting that Nscale “combines InfiniBand, high-bandwidth Ethernet with Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), and NVLink/NVSwitch for NVL72 systems, supported by joint innovation with Nokia across switching and optical layers.” Customers benefit from efficient scaling, faster training times, and more predictable job stability. It delivers the level of interconnect performance required to make complex model architectures viable in production, not just in benchmarks.
A partner ecosystem that delivers
ABI Research scored Nscale 9 for ISV Partner and Co-Development Innovation, noting that our ecosystem is "unusually strong for our age and maturity within the industry." We work with major OEMs including Dell, Nokia, and VAST for storage, networking and hardware needs, enabling us to create modular, pre-fabricated and high-density, renewable-powered data centers. These relationships also represent the kind of deep technical alignment that makes infrastructure more predictable for the people running workloads on it, and significantly reduces the integration risk that typically slows enterprise AI deployments.
What comes next
Being named Overall Leader, and recognized as both Top Innovator and Top Implementer, affirms that our scale, availability, platform maturity, services, and ecosystem depth are setting the pace in the market and delivering measurable value to customers.
If you’re comparing providers and evaluating where to run serious AI workloads, you can take a look at the ABI Research's full report here or get in touch and we’d be happy to take you through our platform.
Read a condensed version of the report here.
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