Anthropic Secures 460 MW at Nscale Campus in $45 Billion Deal: Report

Anthropic PBC has agreed to spend $45 billion over six years to lease cloud computing power from Nscale, according to Bloomberg. The transaction secures approximately 460 megawatts (MW) of capacity at Nscale's flagship Monarch campus in West Virginia.

The massive power footprint is equivalent to the simultaneous electricity demand of about 345,000 American homes. The agreement highlights Anthropic's aggressive strategy to lock down computing infrastructure ahead of an anticipated initial public offering.

Securing the Vera Rubin Supply Chain

To fulfill the six-year contract, the London-based cloud infrastructure provider Nscale will deploy Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin chips. The new hardware is scheduled to begin coming online late next year as part of the first of three build phases at the site.

The overall economics of the West Virginia campus reflect the staggering capital requirements of frontier AI development. Developing the complete site, which includes an on-site power plant, is projected to cost about $71 billion, with $47 billion allocated strictly for semiconductor procurement.

The Real Estate Pivot: Anthropic Replaces Microsoft

Anthropic's capture of the Monarch campus follows a notable infrastructure pivot by Microsoft. The hyperscaler originally signed a letter of intent for the West Virginia site in March 2026 but abandoned the deal during the summer, opening the door for Anthropic to assume the tenancy.

The need for guaranteed compute capacity is being driven by surging demand for products such as Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding tool. To stay competitive, the company has orchestrated a rapid succession of massive infrastructure deals over the past year:

• Anthropic signed a $50 billion compute agreement with Fluidstack.

• The company executed a $45 billion deal to rent the complete computing capacity of SpaceX's Colossus 1 facility in Memphis.

• The Memphis site houses more than 220,000 Nvidia processors and represents 300 MW of new capacity.

Securing this hardware is a critical narrative component for Anthropic's impending public market debut. The startup achieved a valuation of $965 billion in May 2026 and is expected to execute a record-sized listing.

Nscale's Capital Markets Trajectory

For Nscale, the $45 billion transaction fundamentally transforms its balance sheet as it prepares for a US public listing as soon as next month. The Anthropic agreement is now the largest single entry in the company's contracted revenue backlog, which has surged to $51 billion. This represents a massive leap from the roughly $100 million the firm booked in a recent quarter.

While Nscale is establishing its flagship digital infrastructure in Appalachia and targeting a New York listing, its corporate operations remain closely tied to Europe. The company is simultaneously developing a campus in Norway for Microsoft and maintains high-profile board members including Sheryl Sandberg and former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.