VAST Data is increasing its AI data center penetration with more Colossus storage and providing its product for the UK’s Nscale data centers. It’s also resigned a sponsorship deal with the Atlassian Williams Racing Fi team.
Elon Musk’s xAI is using VAST Data storage in its Frontier AI Factory expansion of its Colossus GPU datacenter project. This, according to a 5C Group post on X (Twitter that was) will use Dell liquid-cooled, rack-scale systems using Nvidia GB200 trays, Nvidia GB200 NVL72 racks stuffed full of its GPUs, along with VAST Data storage. There will also be Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet for RDMA networking, helping to enable the cluster’s massive scale, and Tesla Megapacks for backup power. It will be revealed, or come on-line, in early 2026.
This data center is being co-built by xAI and Together AI, which is doing the GPU cloud SW orchestration, and could take the Colossus GPU count past 1 million. It’s likely that VAST Data will supply multiple EBs of capacity for the overall Colossus facility. We should note that DDN also has a storage role in the Colossus facility.
Startup Nscale is building AI datacenters in Europe and the USA, with plans to scale to 300,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GPUs globally. It wants to build a fully vertically integrated, globally distributed AI cloud.
Tom Burke, Chief Revenue Officer at Nscale, talking about infrastructure that can scale globally, said: “With VAST as one of our data layers, we are able to take on the complexity of hyperscale AI and make it seamless for our customers – putting rich data services at the center of the modern AI cloud.”
VAST Co-founder Jeff Denworth added his take on the deal: “This is not just about building another cloud, it is about creating the global fabric that will power the next generation of AI. … Working with Nscale, we are defining the model for hyperscale AI infrastructure and showing the world what the future looks like.”
Watch a YouTube video about Nscale and VAST Data here.
Moving from accelerated computing to accelerated racing cars, Atlassian Williams Racing and VAST Data are renewing their strategic partnership heading into 2026 and beyond. Under the multi-year renewal, VAST Data will see their logo featured on the car mirror stems and team kit, in addition to existing placements on driver and mechanic overalls and the car nose.
VAST Data’s partnership renewal represents another vote of confidence for Atlassian Williams Racing’s comeback plan. This year the team is enjoying its most successful campaign since 2016, sitting fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Sorin Cheran, Chief Information and Analytics Officer, Atlassian Williams Racing, and a 17 year HPE AI and CTO office veteran, said: “We are delighted that VAST Data have extended their partnership, after a successful and productive year and a half of work together. Their knowledge and insight have played an invaluable role in our progress this year and will continue to be important as we fight for future World Championships. We look forward to building on our partnership, including through new trackside initiatives and the ongoing expansion of our storage solutions.”
One of the things that Atlassian Williams could do to move up the F1 constructor and driver rankings is to use a real-time AI race strategy. Perhaps VAST could get it GPU server access time at the Nscale and Colossus AI data centers.
