Nvidia-backed Nscale, Anthropic in talks for new $45 billion AI cloud deal, source says

Oct. 19 (Reuters) - Nscale is in talks with Anthropic, the company that makes Claude, about selling it computing power for artificial intelligence (AI). The deal could be worth about $45 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Nscale, which develops data centers, is seeking another major deal with Anthropic. The plan would involve building a second facility at Nscale's Monarch data center campus in West Virginia, the person said.

In August, Anthropic agreed to spend $45 billion to rent AI cloud computing power from Nscale's data center campus in West Virginia. According to the source, a second building at Monarch would provide 460 megawatts of computing power using Nvidia's advanced Vera Rubin AI chips.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Anthropic also has the first chance to agree to a deal for Monarch's planned third building, the person said. Talks are still underway, and the details of the plan could change.

Bloomberg, which first reported the news, also said that a group of investors had urged Anthropic to lower its target value for a possible initial public offering (IPO), when a company first sells shares to the public. This came after several setbacks for AI companies in the market.

Investors are taking a closer look at companies that are borrowing more money to build AI infrastructure. Last week, shares in Nscale rival CoreWeave fell sharply as concerns grew about its $50 billion debt. This helped trigger a worldwide selloff in AI stocks.

The possible deal comes after Microsoft withdrew from an agreement to be the main customer for a major Nscale data center. Delays in connecting the site to the power supply pushed the expected date for electricity to become available into the 2030s.

Nscale has grown quickly since it launched. In two and a half years, the total value of its contracted deals rose from $100 million to more than $103 billion. It competes with Nebius, Crusoe and Lambda.

According to Nscale's prospectus, Microsoft and Anthropic are expected to be the company's main customers in the future.

(Reporting by Jeff Horwitz in San Francisco and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)