Bloomberg reports Anthropic is in talks to buy about $45 billion more computing power from Nscale for a second West Virginia building
Nscale, the AI cloud computing firm, is in talks to sell computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth about $45 billion, according to people familiar with the negotiations
Context
A second deal this size would roughly double Anthropic's commitment to one neocloud, showing how much compute frontier labs are locking up, and it comes days after Microsoft walked away from an Nscale site.
Bloomberg reports this first hand, citing people familiar with the negotiations, and Reuters said it could not independently verify it. The Kobeissi Letter, a markets commentary account, posted it first as a secondhand headline. Neither company had commented, and the deal is not final.
- Bloomberg: Nscale, Anthropic in talks for $45 billion cloud computing deal
- Reuters via Investing.com: Anthropic, Nscale in talks for new $45 billion AI cloud computing deal, Bloomberg News reports
- Reuters: Anthropic to rent AI computing power from Nscale for $45 billion, source says (August)
- The Kobeissi Letter on X: Anthropic is in talks to buy $45 billion of computing power from Nscale, per Bloomberg
- Advance Intelligence: Microsoft pulls out of a UK data center deal with Nscale
Deep dive
On October 19, Bloomberg posted that Nscale, the AI cloud computing firm, is in talks to sell computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth about $45 billion, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The Kobeissi Letter had posted the news minutes earlier, citing Bloomberg, adding that a deal could be finalized as soon as the coming days and would bolster Nscale's IPO prospects.
Reuters' summary of the Bloomberg report says Nscale is seeking the deal for a second facility at its Monarch data center campus in West Virginia. In August, Anthropic agreed to spend $45 billion renting computing power from that campus. The report says a second Monarch building would deliver 460 megawatts using Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips, that Anthropic has a right of first refusal on an expected third building, and that discussions are ongoing and details could change.
Reuters also noted that Bloomberg reported a group of investors had urged Anthropic to lower its IPO valuation target after market setbacks for AI companies, and that rival CoreWeave's shares fell last week over its debt load. Reuters said Nscale's total contracted value has grown from $100 million to more than $103 billion in two and a half years.
The talks follow Microsoft's exit from a flagship Nscale site in the UK over power connection delays, covered in the October 18 deck.
What to expect next
Watch whether the deal is signed in the coming days, as Bloomberg's sources suggested, and whether Anthropic or Nscale confirm the size and terms. If it closes, Anthropic's commitment to Nscale would roughly double, which matters for Nscale's IPO after losing the Microsoft site. Also watch whether investors keep pressing Anthropic to lower its IPO valuation, and whether power delays like those that hit Nscale in the UK spread to West Virginia.