00:00Josh some huge ambitions from end scale and just the computing power that you can bring online the revenues you're
00:06going to be generated in the next few years.
00:08Just talk to us about how you achieve that that necessary infrastructure. Josh.
00:13Well thank you Caroline. It's great to be here. You know firstly what I'll say is this is the fourth
00:18industrial revolution.
00:19This market is moving so fast and we're still at the beginning. We're talking about a technology that is going
00:24to lead to you know
00:25automized automated drug discovery the extension of human life truly autonomous agents and the only thing that prevents that future
00:34is access to the scarce resource which is the compute.
00:37And so end scale is solves this problem. We we buy and build and deploy all of that infrastructure to
00:43allow for these products to be built and operated.
00:45And so not only is there just huge demand for the sector but we're capturing it.
00:50And there's huge demand for your expertise Cheryl and to join boards. Why why did you choose Josh.
00:55Why did you back end scale. Why on the board.
01:00Well the funny part of the story starts with his part which is.
01:05Well so thinking about how I how I build the next great platform what was most important to me is
01:11speaking to executives that have built great platforms before of global scale.
01:16And so certainly none better than Cheryl Sandberg. And so I tried for some time to get an introduction to
01:21Cheryl.
01:21And upon finally doing so I we we scheduled a 30 minute call and the first thing that she said
01:26to me was I don't do boards and I don't do these calls.
01:30Right. So it was an inauspicious beginning but I didn't do boards and I didn't do these calls.
01:35But what I saw in Josh 90 minutes into our 30 minute phone call was what I considered real visionary
01:42leadership over the next few weeks as he was trying to get me to consider joining the board.
01:47He went away and he wrote a letter to his management team and the only person I'd ever seen right
01:53like that was Mark Zuckerberg.
01:55This combination of a relentless relentless desire for great relentless desire for execution.
02:03You know and from my point of view I joined Google when it was at 250 people left at 20
02:08,000.
02:09I joined Facebook when it was 550 people left you know almost 100,000.
02:14So the opportunity to work with founder I believe in I joined right as a company was about 300 400
02:20people.
02:20So that same spot and try to take some of the lessons we've learned and help a company I believe
02:27in this much scale really matters.
02:29I also really believe in the power of AI.
02:31I think we're at the very beginning.
02:33I started my career in global health.
02:35AI is going to mean that anyone in a remote village anywhere in the world could get skin cancer diagnosed
02:41at the same efficacy rate as someone in the Mayo Clinic.
02:45But that is going to take a build out and a build out of infrastructure and compute.
02:50And I really believe in Josh and N-Scale's ability to do that.
02:54So I'm happy to be here.
02:56Josh the term NeoCloud has actually also become quite broad.
03:00When I talk to people about N-Scale they say well N-Scale is modular.
03:04How do you set yourselves apart from the other NeoClouds out there?
03:08Many of whom come on this program and make quite similar pitches.
03:13Yeah so I think the key distinction with N-Scale is we are fully vertically integrated.
03:18Again if you think about the challenge for the sector it's actually landing the infrastructure on the ground and getting
03:23it plugged in.
03:24And the true scarcity given the demand in the sector is the land, the power and then the chips.
03:30And so by and large the NeoCloud sector is not really vertically integrated in that they don't own their own
03:35land and power.
03:36N-Scale does.
03:37We own the land and power, we own the chips and we own the software delivering an end-to-end
03:42service to the counterparty.
03:44In addition we recently acquired a company called American Intelligence Corporation in West Virginia which adds an even further segment
03:52to that which is the ownership of the power.
03:54This is a behind the meter site which means that we're effectively taking natural gas and producing our own energy.
04:02Which means it's not connected to the local grid and therefore subject to any kind of price increases for consumers.
04:09Cheryl it's great to have you back on Bloomberg Television and on Bloomberg Tech.
04:13You said I don't do boards historically.
04:17With this role with N-Scale I think a lot of people are really interested if you go back to
04:22being an operator.
04:23You know with time if you would join the executive ranks at N-Scale and whether you do or don't
04:29kind of operationally how you think you can help the company grow.
04:33So I've joined as both a board member as an advisor.
04:36I'm spending real time with Josh and his team.
04:38I have no plans to go on board full time.
04:41They have an incredible exec team.
04:43And my goal is to help them scale.
04:46Help figure out how we structure, how we do corporate governance.
04:50I've helped recruit some other great board members.
04:53Nick Clegg you mentioned joined the board with me.
04:55Sue Decker who has decades of experience chairing audit committees and in the financial world.
05:02And work with them to really scale their company.
05:05What I see in Josh is two things.
05:07Is real ambition.
05:09Like real ambition to make a difference in how the AI build out happens.
05:14Make it sustainable.
05:15Make it clean.
05:16Commitment to local jobs as we scale and build.
05:19But also a commitment to excellence.
05:22To hiring the best people.
05:24To getting people into the right jobs.
05:26To structuring so that we can really execute.
05:29And it's been, it already has been a great pleasure to work this closely with someone I believe in.
05:35And also Caroline, I know you always care about this.
05:38That's a really strong team of senior women.
05:41Head of AI infrastructure.
05:43CFO.
05:44Head of security.
05:46Josh before me.
05:48Hired what he considers, who he considers the best people.
05:51And a lot of great women in those jobs.
05:52I love that.
05:53Because it's something I'm passionate about.
05:55It's something that you spent your career advocating for, Cheryl.
05:58Is diversity within the ranks of talent.
06:01But also you're advocating as well for clean energy.
06:03And I noticed you've got one other board seat with Teradot.
06:05And that is about carbon neutrality.
06:07So Josh, I ask you, what about carbon neutrality for West Virginia?
06:10Because that's about the actual gas.
06:12How do you think about that in the longer term?
06:15Yeah, sure.
06:16So broadly the company thesis is to take sustainable energy and convert it into intelligence.
06:21So we first do this in the north of Norway.
06:23So we operate in the north of Norway using only hydropower.
06:27The north of Norway has such a large oversupply of energy due to basically the seasons.
06:32Effectively during the winter, all of the glaciers melt over.
06:35And then in the summer, they all melt and create enormous waterfalls.
06:39And the Norwegian government has built large hydropower dams to capture that energy.
06:43But the challenge is it can't be exported.
06:45And so it's got to be consumed in region.
06:48So N-Scale is building some of the largest AI infrastructure projects on the European continent
06:52in the north of Norway, taking otherwise stranded energy and converting it to intelligence.
06:57The same goes for our projects in Texas, as an example.
07:01In Texas, you've got a similar oversupply of renewables and other energy, but it's in remote location.
07:07So we're building some of the largest infrastructure projects in North America in this location
07:12in order to convert that to intelligence.
07:15Now, in West Virginia, we're doing the same thing, but slightly different.
07:18In West Virginia, we're producing our own energy.
07:20One of the challenges with the North American grid is constrain.
07:24And so we felt that producing our own energy with natural gas generators, i.e.
07:30behind the meter, was the best way to scale sustainably, but also not impact local prices
07:37and the grid.
07:41Cheryl, you're very used to being inside companies that are just truly global, right?
07:47Listening to what Josh is saying, N-Scale gets a lot of credit because it's a kind of a leader
07:53in Europe.
07:54It is a footprint in the United Kingdom, but we've just been talking about America.
07:58How much do you want Josh, I know he's sitting next to you, to shift gears a little bit and
08:03move this company and himself to the U.S.?
08:06Do you want him to focus on the Middle East, where there is the capital, there is the will,
08:11there is energy supply, for example?
08:13Well, I'll let him answer that.
08:15But certainly this is global, right?
08:18This is a global company started in London and continuing to expand all over the world.
08:26Yeah, so I mean, today we're operating in five countries.
08:31We have plans for 15.
08:32Naturally, North America is the center of the universe for artificial intelligence, both
08:37with startups, with larger customers, with access to capital.
08:41And so naturally, I spend a lot of my time here.
08:43But as Cheryl said, this is a global market and I'm spending most of my time on a plane as
08:48a result.
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