COPENHAGEN, Sept 25 (Reuters) - British artificial

intelligence group Nscale has raised $1.1 billion from

investors, including Norway's Aker ASA ( AKAAF ) and Finland's

Nokia, to help accelerate its data centre

infrastructure buildout, the companies said on Thursday.

The so-called Series B funding round was led by Aker ( AKAAF ), the

investment company of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke,

which injected $285 million in cash and assets, taking a stake

of 9.3% in Nscale.

A potential future earn-out could further increase Aker's ( AKAAF )

ownership to 12.2%, the Norwegian group said.

U.S. artificial intelligence company OpenAI in July said it

would build its first European data centre in Norway's Arctic

city of Narvik, jointly with Nscale and Aker ( AKAAF ).

Sandton Capital, Blue Owl Managed Funds, Dell, Fidelity

Management & Research Company, G Squared, NVIDIA ( NVDA ), Point72 and

T.Capital also took part in the funding round, Nscale said.

Aker ( AKAAF ) said its 50% stake in the Aker-Narvik joint venture can

be converted into additional Nscale shares at a future initial

public offering.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto and Elviira Luoma, editing by)