• Situational Awareness is raising money to invest in Fluidstack in a round that would value the AI infrastructure provider at $40 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • The proposed valuation is more than double the $18 billion level Fluidstack fetched in a September funding round led by Jane Street, and over five times its January valuation of $7.5 billion.
  • The talks are ongoing and terms could change; the $40 billion figure refers to the company’s valuation, not the amount being raised.

Situational Awareness, the investment firm that led Fluidstack’s $830 million financing in January, is back in the market seeking capital to participate in a new round that would value the AI cloud provider at $40 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks are at a sensitive stage and the valuation could shift as negotiations continue, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

The potential deal underscores the breakneck pace at which investors are repricing AI infrastructure assets. Fluidstack, which specializes in purpose-built data centers and power procurement for artificial-intelligence workloads, was valued at $7.5 billion when it disclosed its January raise in July. By September, it had completed a $1.5 billion round led by Jane Street at roughly $18 billion, according to reporting at the time. A $40 billion valuation would represent a more than fivefold increase in less than a year.

That trajectory reflects surging demand for compute capacity rather than any sudden transformation in the company’s financial profile. Reporting citing UK filings puts Fluidstack’s 2024 revenue at approximately $66.2 million. An investor memorandum described in subsequent reporting projects around $660 million for 2026, up from roughly $200 million in 2025—though those figures are forecasts, not audited results.

A key commercial driver is Fluidstack’s relationship with Anthropic. In November 2025, the company announced an agreement supporting the AI lab’s $50 billion investment in American computing infrastructure, initially involving custom data centers in Texas and New York. Anthropic has continued to identify Fluidstack as part of its compute strategy. But the $50 billion commitment is a multiyear investment pledge, not Fluidstack’s annual revenue or cash already received—a distinction that matters when assessing the company’s actual financial performance.

Fluidstack, originally UK-based with headquarters now in New York, has shifted its focus toward U.S. infrastructure. In March, it withdrew from a proposed €10 billion French project to prioritize larger American contracts, a move that highlighted the competition among jurisdictions for AI infrastructure investment. The company’s projections for its Anthropic program include approximately 2,400 construction jobs and 800 permanent positions, though those are company estimates rather than verified employment figures.

The financing would also come amid broader concerns about “circular financing” in the AI sector, where technology companies, infrastructure providers and investors support one another through investments, purchase commitments and financing guarantees. Those relationships make counterparty and financing structures central to assessing risk in deals like this one.

Questions remain about whether $40 billion is a pre-money or post-money valuation, the specific terms being offered to investors, and whether Situational Awareness is raising a dedicated vehicle or drawing on an existing fund. The people familiar with the matter declined to provide those details.

A spokesperson for Fluidstack declined to comment. Situational Awareness did not respond to a request for comment.