Nscale is in talks to sell $45 billion in cloud computing capacity to Anthropic for a second data center building at its Monarch campus in West Virginia. The proposed deal would roughly double Anthropic's commitment to Nscale, helping the UK infrastructure startup reassure investors ahead of a planned $35 billion New York IPO. The expansion comes amid broader financial scrutiny across the neocloud sector and follows Microsoft pulling out of a UK flagship site with Nscale due to power connection delays past 2030.
Anthropic and Nscale $45 billion compute deals
- ▪The prospective second Nscale-Anthropic deal would cover a 460-megawatt data center utilizing Nvidia Vera Rubin AI chips on the Monarch campus in West Virginia
- ▪UK-based AI infrastructure startup Nscale and AI startup Anthropic are in negotiations for a second $45 billion cloud computing deal, following their August deal
- ▪In August 2026, Anthropic and Nscale signed an initial $45 billion compute deal covering a first data center building on Nscale's Monarch campus in West Virginia
Terms of Anthropic agreement with Nscale
- ▪Anthropic holds a right of first refusal on a third planned data center building at Nscale's West Virginia Monarch campus
- ▪Under the terms of their agreement, Nscale will own and operate the West Virginia data center and chips, providing Anthropic with computing capacity that Anthropic pays for as delivered
- ▪As of mid-September 2026, Nscale had no binding commitments for the funding required to build the Monarch campus, allowing Anthropic to cancel their agreement if financing is not secured by a set deadline
Monarch campus power and timeline
- ▪Nscale targets completion of the first phase of its West Virginia Monarch campus in the first half of 2028
- ▪West Virginia regulatory records show state water permits and an air permit for Nscale's gas-fired power plant remain pending, though West Virginia's environmental regulator issued a letter of intent to approve the air permit
Nscale financial performance and IPO plans
- ▪Nscale reported a net loss of $1 billion on revenue of $141 million in the first half of 2026, after Chinese parent company ByteDance contributed 73 percent of Nscale's $33 million revenue in 2025
- ▪Nscale is seeking to shore up investor confidence ahead of a planned Nscale initial public offering in New York targetting a $35 billion valuation
- ▪Nscale's total contracted value grew from $100 million to more than $103 billion in two-and-a-half years
Microsoft partnership with Nscale
- ▪Microsoft pulled out of a planned flagship data center deal with Nscale in the United Kingdom after power connection delays pushed the expected supply date past 2030
- ▪Nscale's initial public offering prospectus listed Microsoft as expected to be a major customer for the company in the future
CoreWeave market troubles
- ▪Shares of cloud provider CoreWeave slumped in October 2026 amid investor concerns over its $50 billion debt load
- ▪In October 2026, debt issued by rival cloud provider CoreWeave fell into distressed territory amid concerns regarding its $50 billion debt load, fueling a broader selloff in AI stocks
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