Nscale, the Nvidia-backed AI cloud and data center developer, is in talks to sell computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth about $45 billion, Bloomberg reported on 19 October 2026, citing people familiar with the negotiations. The deal would cover a second facility at Nscale’s Monarch data center campus in West Virginia, the people said.
Bloomberg said the talks are not final and details could change. Representatives for Anthropic and Nscale declined to comment, according to the report.
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The key insight: As we read it, Bloomberg’s report ties two things together: a second Anthropic contract at Nscale’s West Virginia campus, and an IPO in which some investors have pushed back on the roughly $30 billion valuation Nscale is seeking.
According to Bloomberg, Nscale is seeking a second major deal with the company behind Claude. The second Monarch building would deliver 460 megawatts of computing power, using Nvidia’s Vera Rubin AI chips, some of the people said.
Anthropic also has the right of first refusal on Monarch’s expected third building, the people told Bloomberg. They said a deal could be finalized as soon as in the coming days.
Bloomberg wrote that “deliberations are ongoing, details of the plan could change and no final decisions have been made,” according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.
Anthropic’s computing deals as Bloomberg listed them on 19 October 2026, bars to scale: Fluidstack $50 billion, SpaceX $45 billion, Volta Infrastructure $10 billion and existing Nscale agreements worth as much as about $44.6 billion (per Nscale’s IPO filing), plus the roughly $45 billion second Nscale deal under negotiation. The roughly $195 billion sum is our arithmetic and the Nscale deal is not final.
Bloomberg posted its scoop on X at 19:40 UTC on 19 October 2026: Nscale is in talks to sell computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth about $45 billion, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The piece is built on the full article behind this post; the deal is not final, and both companies declined to comment.
The Agreements Already in Place
Anthropic already has agreements with Nscale for infrastructure worth as much as about $44.6 billion, according to a regulatory filing for Nscale’s planned initial public offering, Bloomberg reported. It described Anthropic as one of Nscale’s biggest customers.
The Monarch campus is scalable to more than 8 gigawatts of gross power when complete, the IPO filing documents show, according to Bloomberg. Part of the campus was initially expected to be leased by Microsoft, which announced in March that it had signed a letter of intent for the planned data center.
Microsoft walked away from the West Virginia site in the summer, allowing Anthropic to become the tenant, Bloomberg reported. That is a separate site from the UK data center deal Microsoft pulled out of this weekend.
The IPO Behind the Talks
Bloomberg wrote that another multibillion-dollar computing deal would bolster Nscale’s IPO prospects as it seeks about a $30 billion valuation in its market debut. On 18 October, Bloomberg reported that a cohort of investors had urged that a valuation in the $16 billion to $19 billion range would be more likely to find favor with buyers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Nscale filed publicly for a US listing in September and has not begun formal marketing, Bloomberg reported. It said the company is working through comments from the US Securities and Exchange Commission on its filing.
Nscale raised $3.36 billion in a pre-IPO round last month, led by Third Point with investors including Nvidia, Apollo Global Management, Citadel, Hudson Bay Capital and Abu Dhabi Investment Council, according to Bloomberg.
Anthropic’s Other Compute Deals
Bloomberg listed other data center deals Anthropic has signed: a $50 billion pact with Fluidstack, $10 billion with Volta Infrastructure Holdings and $45 billion with SpaceX. It reported that Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May and is expected to hold its own IPO in the coming months.
Bloomberg also noted that investors have grown wary of the sums being borrowed to finance the AI data center buildout.
The Numbers, by Our Arithmetic
By our arithmetic, a deal worth about $45 billion would be about 1.5 times the roughly $30 billion valuation Nscale is seeking, and about 2.4 to 2.8 times the $16 billion to $19 billion range Bloomberg said some investors urged.
Added to the existing agreements of as much as about $44.6 billion, a second deal of about $45 billion would put Anthropic’s Nscale commitments at roughly $89.6 billion, our arithmetic. Adding the Fluidstack, SpaceX and Volta deals Bloomberg listed gives about $195 billion.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the size of the talks stands out against the IPO: by our arithmetic, a deal worth about $45 billion is about 1.5 times the valuation Nscale is seeking and about 2.4 to 2.8 times the range Bloomberg said some investors urged.
As we read it, the campus history matters: Bloomberg reported that Microsoft walked away from the West Virginia site in the summer and Anthropic became the tenant, and the second building would now go to Anthropic too if the talks close.
As we read it, the report also shows what Anthropic already means to Nscale: Bloomberg describes Anthropic as one of its biggest customers, with existing agreements worth as much as about $44.6 billion per the IPO filing.
Bloomberg, 19 October 2026, citing people familiar
“deliberations are ongoing, details of the plan could change and no final decisions have been made”
Three Implications
A SECOND BUILDING The deal would cover a second Monarch building with 460 megawatts of Vera Rubin capacity, and Anthropic has a right of first refusal on a third, the people told Bloomberg.
AN IPO INPUT Bloomberg wrote that another multibillion-dollar deal would bolster Nscale’s IPO prospects as it seeks about a $30 billion valuation.
A LONG LIST OF SUPPLIERS Bloomberg listed Fluidstack ($50 billion), SpaceX ($45 billion) and Volta ($10 billion) among Anthropic’s other compute deals; by our arithmetic the list sums to about $195 billion with the Nscale talks.
The framework puts it this way: “This piece is about the financing. How the money flows, where it cracks, what it buys, who can absorb it, and what happens when revenue can’t catch up.”
As we read it, a roughly $45 billion compute contract under negotiation ahead of an IPO sits inside that financing question; Bloomberg wrote that another multibillion-dollar deal would bolster Nscale’s IPO prospects. The framework was published in May 2026, before these talks were reported.
What Is Not Established
The deal is not signed, and Bloomberg said terms could change. The report does not give the contract length, the price per unit of compute, a start date or how the roughly $45 billion is calculated.
Neither company commented. The sums above add headline figures from different contracts with different terms; they are a scale comparison, not a measure of what Anthropic will pay in any year.
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Nscale is in talks to sell Anthropic computing power in a deal that could be worth about $45 billion, for a 460-megawatt second building at its Monarch campus in West Virginia using Nvidia Vera Rubin chips, Bloomberg reported on 19 October 2026, citing people familiar. Anthropic already has Nscale agreements worth as much as about $44.6 billion, according to Nscale’s IPO filing, and the talks come as Nscale seeks about a $30 billion IPO valuation that some investors have pushed back on.
A note on sourcing. This piece is built on Bloomberg’s 19 October 2026 report, which cites people familiar with the negotiations and Nscale’s IPO filing, and Bloomberg’s 18 October report on the IPO valuation, both read in full. The deal is not final and neither company commented. The multiples and sums are ours. Nothing here is a forecast, and nothing here is financial or investment advice.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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