AI data center startup Fluidstack is in talks for a $1 billion round at a valuation of $18 billion, report says, months after reaching $7.5 billion valuation

Fluidstack, a startup that builds specialized data centers for AI companies, is in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of $18 billion, likely to be led by Jane Street. Bloomberg reports.

If this deal comes to fruition, it will double Fluidstack’s valuation within months.

Sources said that in December, the company raised about $700 million at a valuation of $7.5 billion Bloomberg At the time, though, she had not officially announced the conclusion of that tour. The round will reportedly be led by Situational Awareness, an AGI-focused fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner and backed by Stripe’s Collison brothers, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and AI investor and entrepreneur Daniel Gross.

It appears that talks were still ongoing about this round in February, at least with Google, which was considering paying $100 million for the round. The Wall Street Journal reported.

There’s good reason for the hype around Fluidstack. In November, Anthropic made the announcement Signed a $50 billion deal With the startup to build data centers tailored to its needs in Texas and New York. Unlike hyperscalers like AWS, which serve all kinds of computing needs, Fluidstack’s infrastructure is designed specifically for AI.

The deal was a major vote of confidence for Fluidstack, a company that was relatively unknown in the United States before it. Anthropic primarily uses AWS and Google Cloud for its Claude service (although it also has a partnership with Microsoft to provide Claude to the software giant’s customers). But just like its competitor OpenAI, Anthropology is growing very quickly It needs more capacity, and this deal gives Anthropic more control over its cloud infrastructure.

The partnership is so important to the startup that Fluidstack — which spun out of Oxford and was a rising star in Europe’s AI scene — has moved its headquarters from the UK to New York. Last month, she also withdrew from A Major €10 billion AI project in FranceBloomberg reported that the focus is on American opportunities.

In addition to Anthropic, it counts Meta, Poolside, Black Forest Labs and other clients. Before the deal with Anthropic, Fluidstack was perhaps best known for its offering Mistral infrastructure.

Fluidstack did not respond to a request for comment.