Anthropic signs 20-year lease for $10bn Nova Scotia data center

Anthropic has signed a 20-year lease with EverWind Fuels for a data center at Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, backed by $10bn in planned private investment. CBC first named Anthropic as the end user. Preconstruction work has already begun at the site outside Port Hawkesbury in Cape Breton.

The deal marks Anthropic's first known data center capacity in Canada. It also ranks as the largest private investment in Nova Scotia's history, according to Premier Tim Houston.

EverWind had previously identified its customer only as a "leading frontier AI developer." The company will build and operate the facility.

What does the investment buy?

The $10bn breaks into two parts:

• $8bn for data center construction and operation
• $2bn for EverWind's onshore wind portfolio in Nova Scotia

Capacity arrives in two steps. The initial phase offers 95MW by late 2027. A further 325MW follows in 2028.

The site sits within a larger energy plan. EverWind acquired the Point Tupper fuel terminal from NuStar Energy in 2022 and will expand it into a clean hydrogen and ammonia facility. The terminal once formed part of British American Oil's Gulf Oil Refinery, built and closed in the 1970s.

How will the campus get its power?

Wind supplies the campus through a phased build-out connected to the provincial grid.

Phase 1 includes four projects: Bear Lake, Windy Ridge, Kmtnuk, and Upper Afton. Each connects directly to the grid. Phase 2 covers the Guysborough Wind Projects — Setapunktuk, Wind Farm 2, and Wind Farm 3 — in Guysborough County. These will link to the Point Tupper site through the Strait Crossing Transmission Line, an overhead line crossing the Strait of Canso.

The campus also carries several hundred megawatt-hours of battery storage. That storage supports the facility and helps manage demand on Nova Scotia's electricity grid.

What do the principals say?

EverWind founder and CEO Trent Vichie framed the project as both an industrial continuation and a jobs play.

"Point Tupper has supported industry in the Strait Region for more than 50 years," Vichie said. "Today's announcement represents major new investment in Nova Scotia's digital and energy infrastructure and highlights the role Nova Scotians can play in driving Canada's renewed economic ambitions."

"For decades, Nova Scotians have helped build major projects across Canada, often leaving home to find well-paying work," he added. "With this investment, we're creating more opportunities for people to find jobs and build their careers at home in rural Nova Scotia."

Premier Tim Houston emphasized scale and safeguards. "A private investment of more than $10 billion, the largest in our province's history, has the potential to create thousands of jobs, strengthen rural economies, and position Nova Scotia as a leader in the growing digital and clean energy economy," Houston said.

He also cited commitments to protecting ratepayers, safeguarding local resources, and ensuring communities share the benefits.

What does this change for the region?

Nova Scotia currently hosts 12 data centers, according to Datacenters.com. A 420MW campus would dwarf that installed base and pair it with new wind generation and storage on the provincial grid.

The site's industrial history continues under new tenants. The 150MW coal-fired Point Tupper Generating Station sits nearby. Opened in 1973 and originally designed to run on refinery oil, it will convert to natural gas from 2029 under Nova Scotia Power's plans.

Plans for a data center at the site first emerged earlier this month. EverWind is backed by asset manager Nuveen through its energy infrastructure credit unit.

For Anthropic, the lease adds long-term compute capacity outside its established markets, tied to renewable generation from day one.