Anthropic Reportedly in Talks with Nscale for Second Multibillion-Dollar Computing Deal

Anthropic is reportedly negotiating a second multibillion-dollar agreement with U.K. cloud provider Nscale to lease computing capacity at a U.S. site, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC.

The reported deal would cover a second 460-megawatt data center at the same West Virginia location as an earlier agreement between the two companies, which CNBC reported in August. The person, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the talks, said the arrangement could be worth around $45 billion. Bloomberg was first to report that the discussions were underway.

Anthropic declined to comment, and Nscale had not responded to a request for comment.

Nscale, which is backed by Nvidia, is among the companies that have sprung up in recent years to build the infrastructure needed to run artificial intelligence. It constructs or leases data centers and sells computing capacity to hyperscalers and AI labs.

The company has also faced headwinds. The Telegraph reported Sunday that Microsoft had withdrawn from a deal to anchor an Nscale data center just outside London, citing delays in connecting to the country's power grid. An Nscale spokesperson told CNBC the company remained committed to the project and was exploring alternative power sources for the site, adding that its relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-term and that the grid issue has no impact on its other contracts.

Nscale filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in September. Anthropic said earlier this year that demand for its Claude AI models and products had caused inevitable strain on its infrastructure, and it has since announced a series of deals to expand computing capacity, including agreements with Advanced Micro Devices, Elon Musk's SpaceX, Google and Broadcom.

Source: CNBC