Nvidia weighs playing the cosigner for Nscale’s AI data center in West Virginia

Nvidia is in talks to guarantee billions in debt financing for AI cloud provider Nscale’s planned Anthropic data center in West Virginia, The Information reported Thursday. Bloomberg later corroborated the report. Anthropic has signed a $44.6 billion contract for the project’s first building alone, according to Nscale’s IPO filing. In essence, the chipmaker would be co-signing a customer’s loans, a sign of how hard the AI industry is working to keep its buildout plans afloat as investors grow jittery about the amounts of money involved.

The proposed arrangement would help Nscale secure financing for the electricity and construction costs of its West Virginia campus. Under what’s known as a residual value guarantee, Nvidia would step in if Nscale defaulted on construction payments, temporarily take over the facility, and help find a buyer and new tenant, according to The Information.

Nvidia’s earlier support for cloud providers has mostly covered leases and chip purchases, not construction.

The stakes are high for Nscale, which is seeking to go public at a valuation of up to $35 billion despite growing concerns about its ability to deliver on ambitious data center projects.

Anthropic’s contract with Nscale covers the first 460-megawatt building at Nscale’s West Virginia campus, which is expected to use Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips. The companies are also discussing a second deal worth roughly $45 billion for another building.

Nscale has struggled to get its projects off the ground. The company had about 25,000 advanced AI chips running in August, a fraction of the nearly 500,000 it plans to deploy. Its West Virginia campus has run into trouble of its own. Runoff from the construction site has flooded nearby homes more than once. In September, after months of negotiations, the project won state certification. 

This month, Microsoft pulled out of a planned Nscale site in England after grid power for it was pushed into the 2030s.

Nvidia has been a major financial backer of the sector, extending roughly $170 billion in investments and credit support to neoclouds and large customers, according to The Information. That includes $1 billion in convertible financing committed to Nscale in September.

Neoclouds, which rent out AI computing power without a cash-rich core business behind them, have come under pressure from investors. Shares of CoreWeave, Nebius, and IREN had each fallen more than 30% in October as of last week, CNBC reported.

The proposed guarantee would deepen Nvidia’s financial ties to Nscale while helping secure a major customer for its chips. Anthropic, one of the largest buyers of AI computing power, has spread its infrastructure spending across multiple chipmakers. One investor told The Information that Anthropic’s involvement likely explains Nvidia’s interest in keeping Nscale’s project on track.

The discussions also come as Anthropic faces questions about how it will finance its own rapid expansion. The company filed to go public this week, but Blackstone has warned investors that Anthropic may receive a below-investment-grade credit rating after its IPO. A junk rating would raise Anthropic’s borrowing costs and could push it to keep relying on stronger partners to back its debt.