Partnering with CoreWeave: Bringing Global AI Infrastructure to Scottish Founders

For early-stage AI founders, the hardest things to access aren't always technical. They're the rooms. The relationships. The people who've built at the frontier and can tell you what it actually takes to scale.

CodeBase has partnered with CoreWeave, the cloud platform built for the world's top AI labs and high-growth startups, to create something that doesn't usually exist at this stage of a founder's journey: direct, sustained access to world-class AI infrastructure, senior expertise, and venture capital, all through a single, deliberately structured relationship.

CoreWeave's £1.5 billion commitment to Scottish AI infrastructure is the largest investment of its kind in the region. This partnership ensures that founders are positioned to benefit from it directly, as a tangible and ongoing resource.

The persistent challenge in Scotland's AI ecosystem, for the most part, has been the infrastructure and connections needed to turn strong ideas into companies that scale globally. This partnership is a response to that. 

David Campbell, Co-Founder and CBO of LumiAIres, said:

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This partnership demonstrates that the founders are here, the ideas are here, the energy is here, the entrepreneurial spirit is here. It’s just a huge vote of confidence for those looking to start, scale and really make a global impact in Scotland.

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Bringing global leaders to local founders

On 5th May, CodeBase hosted the first in a series of founder-focused events at CodeBase Edinburgh alongside CoreWeave.

In the room were Nick Hoover, VP of Corporate Development, who oversees M&A and the CoreWeave Ventures programme, and Ben Richardson, VP of Strategy, responsible for CoreWeave's entire operations outside the US. 

The morning opened with networking before founders gathered for a roundtable discussion. The conversation covered ground that matters to anyone building an AI company in Scotland right now. CoreWeave's decision to invest here wasn't driven by financial optimisation; it was a deliberate bet on the quality of the ecosystem and the people within it. 

As Ben Richardson, VP of Strategy at Coreeave, put it:

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We know the quality in Scotland. We know the quality in Edinburgh. We know this enterprise. Why wouldn't we be proud of it? Why wouldn't we be able to create something out of it?

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The discussion also surfaced something early-stage founders know acutely: compute is one of the most constrained resources in the market, and the gap between needing it and accessing it is wider than most people outside the industry appreciate. What working with CoreWeave looks like in practice, from how quickly investment decisions move to the infrastructure arrangements available, grounded the conversation in something tangible and immediately relevant.

Further in the day, the afternoon shifted to one-to-one sessions with senior CoreWeave leaders, giving founders unmediated access to the people shaping one of the world's most significant AI infrastructure businesses. The results were immediate. Founders left with follow-on interest and next steps that weren't on the table that morning.

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What the partnership delivers

Through the CodeBase partnership, Scottish founders gain access to three things that early-stage AI founders rarely secure independently:

• The first is direct access to expertise. Founders can engage with senior CoreWeave leaders who have built and scaled at the frontier of AI infrastructure, across technical, strategic, and commercial dimensions.

• The second is access to compute and AI infrastructure. For founders, compute is one of the most significant practical barriers to building at pace. Through the partnership, founders gain access to high-end GPU capacity, including Grace Blackwell, through flexible arrangements designed to meet companies where they are. 

As Nick Hoover, VP of Corporate Development at CoreWeave, put it:

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If you need compute, which happens to be, in my opinion, probably the scarcest resource on earth at this point, we help get compute.

• The third is proximity to venture capital. CoreWeave Ventures backs founders through structures that reflect what a company actually needs, including direct capital investment and ‘compute for equity’, with decisions made on the merit of the idea. 

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Going forward 

This exclusive founder session is already translating into real next steps for founders and is the first of many between CodeBase and CoreWeave. Ambitious entrepreneurship and innovative ideas have always been a part of Scotland’s startup landscape. Now, through this partnership, so are the infrastructure, capital, and expertise needed to scale globally.