Anthropic in Talks for Second $45bn Nscale Compute Deal

By Priya Raman

Anthropic is negotiating a second compute lease worth up to $45 billion with neocloud operator Nscale, according to a Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the matter. The figure matches the first contract the two companies signed in August. A deal of this size, signed twice within months, would be unusual; no confirmation has come from either party.

What would the new agreement cover?

The reported contract covers 460MW of capacity at Nscale's Monarch campus in West Virginia. That is the same capacity as the August agreement. Anthropic would occupy a second data center at the site.

The deal would include Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips, the successor platform to Nvidia's current data center GPU lineup. Anthropic also reportedly holds a right of first refusal on a third building at the campus. A right of first refusal means Anthropic can match any competing offer before Nscale sells that capacity elsewhere.

Neither company has commented. Die Signal contacted both Anthropic and Nscale for a response. Neither had replied by publication. That silence is standard for unfinished negotiations, but it leaves the $45 billion figure resting on a single anonymous source.

How big is the Monarch campus?

Monarch is Nscale's largest project. The company acquired the 2,250-acre site in March 2026. The campus could eventually reach 8GW of capacity. Nscale plans the first phase at 2GW, with an expected online date in the first half of 2028.

Power will come from Caterpillar's fast-response natural gas generator sets, specifically the G3500 series. On-site gas generation avoids grid connection queues, a constraint that has already cost Nscale one customer this week. Microsoft pulled out of a capacity deal with the neocloud days ago, citing delays in the UK's grid connection queue. That withdrawal makes a second Anthropic contract timely for Nscale's revenue outlook.

Microsoft remains committed to 1.35GW at Monarch. For that capacity, Nscale plans a large-scale GPU deployment built on the Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 GPUs, a rack-scale configuration that packages 72 GPUs per rack.

Why does timing matter for both companies?

Both companies are moving toward public listings. Nscale published its IPO prospectus in September. The document discloses five active data centers with a combined 55MW, plus 12 more in various stages of development. Anthropic confidentially filed for its IPO in June 2026.

A 55MW operating footprint supports a multi-billion-dollar leasing pipeline on paper; the gap between the two numbers is the risk. The first 2GW phase at Monarch will not come online until the first half of 2028 at the earliest, so contracted revenue depends on construction and power delivery schedules holding.

What is still unconfirmed?

The core facts warrant scrutiny. Consider what the report does not say: no signed contract exists yet, no lease term is disclosed, and no pricing breakdown separates the chip supply from the space and power. The $45 billion valuation, if accurate, would cover the full term of a multi-year lease, not an annual figure.

Key open questions:

• Whether the talks conclude before either company's IPO window opens
• Whether the second 460MW block fits inside the first 2GW phase or extends beyond it
• Whether the Microsoft withdrawal in the UK signals broader grid risk for Nscale's non-Monarch sites
• Whether Anthropic exercises its right of first refusal on the third building

Nscale declined to comment through absence of response rather than denial. Anthropic did the same. Until a contract is signed, the second $45 billion agreement remains a report, not a deal.