Nvidia Is in Talks to Back Billions in Debt for Nscale's Anthropic Data Center, Report Says
The proposed guarantee, likely more than $5 billion by The Information's estimate, would cover construction of a 460-megawatt West Virginia building that Anthropic plans to use. Nothing is signed.
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Nvidia is negotiating to guarantee billions of dollars of construction debt for a 460-megawatt data center that Nscale is building for Anthropic in West Virginia, The Information reported on October 29, 2026. Based on industry cost estimates, The Information put the guarantee at likely more than $5 billion. The deal has not been signed and its terms could change.
Illustrative photo: Coopers Rock, West Virginia. Image: peter schreve via Unsplash / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).
What's on the table
According to The Information's report, as summarized by Techmeme and Sina Finance, the support would cover the power and construction of the building at Nscale's Monarch campus. It would not cover Anthropic's lease payments or chip purchases, which is how much of Nvidia's earlier credit support has been structured.
Reporter Phoebe Liu described the structure on X as a residual value guarantee on the data center itself. One person told The Information this would let Nscale raise investment-grade financing. If Nscale defaulted on construction payments, Nvidia would step in, temporarily take over the facility and help arrange its sale or re-leasing, according to that person.
Bloomberg also reported that Nvidia was in talks to offer credit support for an Nscale project.
The deal by the numbers
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Facility size | 460 MW | The Information |
| Estimated guarantee | Likely more than $5B | The Information, from a ~$12B-per-GW industry cost estimate |
| Anthropic contract for the first building | $44.6B (about $45B) | Nscale's IPO filing, per TechCrunch and The Information |
| Nvidia's prior support for neoclouds and big customers | About $170B | The Information |
| Nscale contracted value | $100M to more than $103B in about 2.5 years | Reuters |
The Monarch building will use Nvidia's Vera Rubin GPUs, according to The Information.
Update (Oct 30)
TechCrunch reported these additional details on October 30:
- IPO: Nscale is seeking to go public at a valuation of up to $35 billion. TechCrunch also confirmed the building will use Vera Rubin chips.
- Slow start: Nscale had about 25,000 advanced AI chips running in August, a fraction of the nearly 500,000 it plans to deploy.
- Site trouble: runoff from the West Virginia construction site has flooded nearby homes more than once. The project won state certification in September after months of negotiations.
- England: this month Microsoft pulled out of a planned Nscale site in England after grid power for it was pushed into the 2030s.
- Nvidia's exposure: its roughly $170 billion in sector support includes $1 billion in convertible financing committed to Nscale in September.
- Market pressure: shares of neoclouds CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN had each fallen more than 30% in October as of last week, CNBC reported.
- Anthropic's credit: Blackstone has warned investors that Anthropic may get a below-investment-grade rating after its IPO, which would raise its borrowing costs.
Nvidia in three roles
If the deal closes, Nvidia would be the facility's chip supplier, an investor in Nscale and the backstop for its construction debt. Critics call this circular AI financing: a supplier helps fund the customers that buy its hardware.
The Information reported that Nvidia has provided about $170 billion in credit support and investments to neoclouds such as Nscale, CoreWeave and Firmus and to other big customers.
A guarantee is not a loan. Nvidia would not necessarily put cash in up front, but it would take on contingent exposure if construction stalls or Nscale can't pay.
A second building in play
Anthropic and Nscale may also be expanding. On October 19, Reuters reported that the two were discussing a new deal worth about $45 billion for a second 460-megawatt building at Monarch. Anthropic also has a right of first refusal on an expected third building, according to Reuters' source, though details could change.
Why it matters
Both Nscale and Anthropic are heading toward public listings, and both have filings that put these commitments in front of investors. A guarantee from Nvidia could make the Monarch build cheaper to finance. It would also tie more of the AI build-out's risk to the balance sheet of the company selling the chips.
What to watch:
- Whether Nvidia and Nscale sign, and at what size
- Disclosure of the guarantee in Nscale's or Nvidia's filings
- A signed contract for the second Monarch building
More on AI infrastructure is in our Artificial Intelligence hub.
How we reported this
The Information's article is paywalled. We confirmed its key details through Techmeme's summary, Sina Finance's report of the article and the reporter's own post. Reuters' October 19 report was read through its syndicated copy on Investing.com because Reuters blocked direct access. We cut a claim about Anthropic investor doubts. On October 30 we added TechCrunch's new details and corrected the $44.6 billion figure's source to Nscale's IPO filing, as TechCrunch reports.
Published and fact-checked October 29, 2026. Updated October 30, 2026.
Sources
- The Information: Nvidia Moves to Backstop a Cloud Provider's $45 Billion Anthropic Project (paywalled), Oct 29, 2026.
- Techmeme: summary of The Information's report, with related coverage, Oct 29, 2026.
- Sina Finance: Nvidia reportedly in talks to provide billions in debt credit guarantees for Nscale data center (Chinese), Oct 30, 2026 (Beijing time).
- Reuters via Investing.com: Nvidia-backed Nscale, Anthropic in talks for new $45 billion AI cloud deal, Oct 19, 2026.
- TechCrunch: Nvidia weighs playing the cosigner for Nscale's AI data center in West Virginia, Aditya Mehta, Oct 30, 2026.
DailyMech used AI tools to help research and draft this article; it was fact-checked by our editors.