Anthropic in Talks With Nscale for $45 Billion Compute Deal

Anthropic is in talks with Nvidia-backed data center developer Nscale over a cloud computing agreement worth approximately $45 billion, according to Bloomberg. The deal involves the second building of the Monarch data center campus in West Virginia and could be finalized within days, though terms may still change.

The second building at the Monarch campus would provide 460 megawatts of computing capacity and use Nvidia's latest-generation Vera Rubin AI chips, people familiar with the matter said. Anthropic has also secured the right of first negotiation for a planned third building at the campus. Regulatory filings for Nscale's IPO show the two companies have already signed agreements worth up to $44.6 billion for existing infrastructure, and the new deal would expand their partnership further.

The Monarch campus is designed to scale to more than 8 gigawatts of total computing capacity once fully built. It was originally expected to be leased by Microsoft, which signed a letter of intent in March 2026 but withdrew from the project in summer 2026.

The potential agreement would bolster Nscale's IPO plans. The company is seeking a valuation of around $30 billion, though some investors have reportedly pushed for a lower target of $16 billion to $19 billion. Nscale publicly filed its U.S. IPO application in September 2026 and completed a $3.36 billion pre-IPO funding round that month, led by Third Point with participation from Nvidia, Apollo Global Management, Citadel and others.

Anthropic has become a major customer of data center providers, with existing compute agreements including $50 billion with Fluidstack, $10 billion with Volta Infrastructure Holdings, and $45 billion with SpaceX. The AI company was valued at $965 billion in May 2026 and is expected to launch its own IPO in the coming months.