Anthropic and Nscale in Talks for Second 5 Billion Compute Deal

Anthropic and Nscale in Talks for Second $45 Billion Compute Deal

Bloomberg reports talks for a second $45 billion block

Nscale is negotiating to sell Anthropic computing power worth about $45 billion, Bloomberg reported on October 19, citing people familiar with the talks. The deal would cover a second building at Nscale's Monarch campus in West Virginia, delivering about 460 megawatts of capacity built on Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips. Reuters confirmed the negotiations the same day through its own source.

No official confirmation, and terms could still shift

Anthropic did not respond to Reuters' request for comment, and Nscale has not publicly confirmed the terms. Bloomberg noted that discussions are ongoing and details could change; Reuters likewise stressed that nothing has been signed, leaving the price and delivery schedule uncertain.

An August first deal, filed at up to $44.6 billion

The talks would build on an existing partnership. In August, Anthropic agreed to rent computing power from the first Monarch building over six years, a commitment Reuters valued at about $45 billion. Nscale's IPO filing puts the related agreements at up to about $44.6 billion, contingent on Nscale securing financing and hitting construction milestones. Anthropic also holds a right of first refusal on an expected third building at the campus.

Soaring revenue forces capacity lock-in

Demand from Claude's training and inference workload is driving the move. Anthropic told investors its third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion, up about 46 percent from $11.5 billion the previous quarter, according to Bloomberg. Locking in large, firm blocks of capacity ahead of its planned listing has become central to sustaining that growth story.

Microsoft's UK exit leaves Nscale's record mixed

London-based Nscale, backed by Nvidia, filed for a New York listing in September under the ticker NSCL. The Financial Times reports it is targeting a valuation of up to $35 billion and a raise of about $3 billion. But its delivery record faces scrutiny just before the offering: Microsoft has terminated its lease at Nscale's Loughton data center in Essex, England, which was to deploy about 23,000 Nvidia chips against a 2 billion pound investment pledge from Nscale, while reliable grid power is reportedly not expected until the 2030s. Its flagship Glomfjord site in Norway is running about six months behind schedule after cooling-system leaks and a transformer fire last December, with only 6.4 megawatts of a planned 30 megawatts operating. The IPO filing shows total contract value of $103.4 billion, with Microsoft's $43.8 billion and the Anthropic agreements together accounting for about 85 percent, a heavy customer concentration.

What comes next is financing and delivery

A signed second deal would roughly double Anthropic's footprint at the Monarch campus and strengthen Nscale's IPO narrative. Yet the first deal was itself conditional on financing, and the second faces the same constraints of money and power: construction progress in West Virginia, supply of Nvidia's newest chips, and repairs to the Norwegian and British projects will decide whether the $45 billion turns into working capacity or stays on paper.