FluidStack, a startup specializing in AI data center solutions, is currently in discussions to secure approximately $1 billion in funding, targeting a valuation of $18 billion. This news has been reported by multiple sources, highlighting the company's impressive growth trajectory and its recent partnerships.
As part of this funding round, trading firm Jane Street and the AGI-focused fund Situational Awareness are reportedly looking to co-lead the investment. Situational Awareness was founded by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former researcher at OpenAI, and has gained backing from notable figures including the Collison brothers, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and investor Daniel Gross. Morgan Stanley is advising on this investment, which signifies confidence in FluidStack's future.
The anticipated $18 billion valuation represents a dramatic increase from FluidStack's previous valuation of $7.5 billion, which was reported in December 2025 when the company was in talks to raise around $700 million. That earlier funding round was said to be led by Situational Awareness but ultimately did not close or receive formal confirmation.
FluidStack's strong negotiating position is largely attributed to a significant partnership with Anthropic, signed in November 2025, that entails a $50 billion commitment to build customized data center facilities in Texas and New York. This partnership is designed to enhance the efficiency of Anthropic's Claude AI workloads and is expected to see facilities coming online throughout 2026. This deal marks a pivotal moment for FluidStack, transitioning from a relatively unknown player in the European AI infrastructure landscape to a major contender in the United States.
Founded in 2017 as a spin-off from Oxford University, FluidStack has pivoted toward AI compute infrastructure, especially following the explosive growth of AI technologies like ChatGPT. The company's revenue has surged from $1.8 million in 2022 to an impressive $66.2 million in 2024, reflecting its successful expansion and the growing demand for AI infrastructure.
FluidStack manages over 100,000 GPUs and has attracted a diverse range of clients, including Anthropic, Meta, Poolside, Black Forest Labs, and France’s Mistral. The company’s expansion was further accelerated by a $200 million Series A funding round in February 2025, which enabled it to scale operations significantly.
In early 2025, FluidStack was also selected as the primary partner for a one-gigawatt AI infrastructure initiative backed by the French government, representing an investment of more than $11 billion. Furthermore, two long-term hosting agreements with TeraWulf, totaling $6.7 billion in contracted revenue, are set to begin in 2026, further solidifying the company’s position in the market.
If the current funding round successfully closes, FluidStack would emerge as one of the most valuable AI infrastructure companies outside of the hyperscaler category, such as AWS and Google. The rapid valuation growth from startup to $18 billion in under a decade underscores the intense demand for customized AI compute solutions as AI labs race to secure infrastructure that traditional cloud providers struggle to deliver quickly and with the necessary customization.
Unlike general-purpose cloud services, FluidStack specializes in building data centers that are optimized for the specific training and inference patterns of various AI systems. This unique approach grants customers greater control over their operational costs and performance levels, distinguishing FluidStack from competitors in the cloud space.
Source: TNW | Investors-Funding News