Second $45 billion deal in two months
Anthropic has spent the past year securing large computing contracts, betting that its heavy investment in AI infrastructure will eventually pay off, TechCrunch reported. The latest negotiations would build on a $45 billion commitment the company made in August to rent cloud computing capacity at Nscale’s Monarch campus in West Virginia.
The deals underscore Nscale’s rapid growth as it expands to meet demand for AI computing. Reuters reported that the Nvidia-backed company’s contracted value has climbed from $100 million to more than $103 billion in two and a half years, putting it in competition with infrastructure providers Nebius, Crusoe and Lambda.
Nscale’s planned IPO filing also lists infrastructure agreements with Anthropic worth up to $44.6 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.
Investors nervous about AI debt
Investor scrutiny of AI valuations and infrastructure spending is intensifying as companies commit billions to computing capacity. Reuters reported that some investors are urging Anthropic to lower its IPO valuation target following a series of setbacks across the AI sector.
CoreWeave shares nosedived last week following worries over its $50 billion debt burden and it also contributed to a general sell-off in AI stocks.
Nscale is also facing very similar questions regarding how it will fund its rapid expansion. The company’s contracts represent promised future revenue and not casah that it already holds. The expansion of its data center footprint and efforts to secure enough power for the facilities also require heavy upfront investment.
Nscale has faced setbacks in securing major customers, including Microsoft, which abandoned plans to anchor a flagship data center after power connection delays pushed the expected supply date into the 2030s, Reuters reported. Yet Nscale’s prospectus still lists Microsoft and Anthropic as its expected major customers.
The stakes are high for both companies as they prepare for public listings, with Anthropic targeting an IPO later this year.
