Anthropic is discussing a follow-on lease with Nscale to secure more compute at a U.S. site, according to a person who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak about the negotiations. Bloomberg first flagged that the two were exploring a second agreement, and CNBC previously revealed the initial arrangement in August.
Anthropic did not provide a comment. A request for comment was sent to Nscale.
The talks center on capacity for a second 460 megawatt data center at the West Virginia location used in the initial deal, the person said. By their estimate, the new agreement could come in near $45 billion.
Nscale is one of the newer players building the plumbing for AI computing. The Nvidia-backed firm develops or rents data centers and then provides compute to large cloud platforms and AI research shops. The company, based in the U.K., filed in September to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Peers have hit turbulence. Over the past month, CoreWeave and Nebius have dropped 28% and 27%, respectively, as investors worry about heavy borrowing across the space.
Nscale has had its own hurdles. The Telegraph reported Sunday that Microsoft exited an agreement to serve as the main tenant for an Nscale facility just outside London due to delays getting connected to the national grid. An Nscale spokesperson told CNBC the company remained "committed" to the project and was "exploring alternative power sources for the site." They added, "Our relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-term, and this unfortunate London-wide grid issue has no impact on our other contracts."
Earlier this year, Anthropic said that a spike in usage of its Claude AI models and associated offerings has put "inevitable strain" on its infrastructure. In response, it has unveiled a string of partnerships to expand capacity, including notable arrangements with Advanced Micro Devices, Elon Musk's SpaceX, Google, and Broadcom.
The bottom line: if this second West Virginia build moves ahead at the reported scale and price, it underscores just how much capital AI model providers are committing to secure compute - a key input that can shape margins, growth pacing, and ultimately how you value the AI stack in your portfolio.
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