Artificial intelligence leader Anthropic is reportedly negotiating a massive $45 billion infrastructure agreement with cloud developer Nscale.

  • Negotiations are underway for a second facility at Nscale's Monarch campus in West Virginia, which would utilize Nvidia's cutting-edge Vera Rubin chips.
  • The prospective transaction could close within days, providing a major tailwind for Nscale as it seeks a roughly $30 billion valuation ahead of its initial public offering. 
  • Anthropic stepped into the West Virginia site after Microsoft walked away from a previous letter of intent earlier in the year.

Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic PBC is in advanced discussions to acquire roughly $45 billion in computing power from Nvidia-backed cloud infrastructure firm Nscale, Bloomberg reported.

The prospective agreement centers on a second facility at Nscale’s expansive Monarch data center campus located in West Virginia, according to individuals close to the negotiations quoted by Bloomberg. This new building is slated to generate 460 megawatts of computing capacity powered by Nvidia Corp.’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips. 

While final terms have not been finalized, an agreement could materialize in the coming days. Representatives for both companies declined to comment on the ongoing talks.

Filling Microsoft’s Shoes

The West Virginia campus was initially slated to house infrastructure for Microsoft Corp.(MSFT), which signed a preliminary letter of intent in March. However, Microsoft withdrew from the site, clearing the way for Anthropic to secure the prime real estate.

Anthropic already has existing infrastructure commitments with Nscale valued at approximately $44.6 billion, according to regulatory filings associated with Nscale’s upcoming public offering. 

The creator of the Claude AI model has rapidly emerged as a dominant consumer of global data center capacity, having previously established massive supply pacts, including a $50 billion arrangement with Fluidstack Ltd., a $10 billion agreement with Volta Infrastructure Holdings Ltd., and a $45 billion partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Nscale's Market Aspirations

For Nscale, securing another landmark contract arrives at a critical juncture as the company navigates its path toward the public markets. Nscale filed publicly for a United States stock listing in September.

The cloud provider recently closed a $3.36 billion pre-IPO financing round led by Dan Loeb’s Third Point, with participation from heavyweight investors including Nvidia, Apollo Global Management Inc., Citadel, Hudson Bay Capital, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. 

The partnership comes as Nscale targets a $30 billion valuation for its debut.

Meanwhile, Anthropic is also weighing its own landmark public offering in the months ahead as it aggressively scales its computational infrastructure to support surging enterprise demand and compete with rival AI lab OpenAI.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was ‘bullish’ with ‘high’ message volumes for Anthropic. 

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