Anthropic, the developer of the AI model Claude, has agreed to spend $45 billion on leasing computing capacity from the UK-based AI cloud provider Nscale. This was reported by Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the terms of the private agreement.
The contract is for six years and provides for about 460 MW of capacity at Nscale's data center in West Virginia, which should help Anthropic secure resources for training and operating new Claude models.
Nscale will use new Nvidia Vera Rubin chips, shipments of which are expected by the end of 2027. The volume of electricity provided for by the agreement roughly corresponds to the consumption of 345,000 American households.
Anthropic increases spending on AI infrastructure
The agreement with Nscale became another major contract of Anthropic for computing resources. The company has already concluded agreements worth $50 billion with the non-cloud provider Fluidstack, $10 billion with Volta Infrastructure Holdings, and nearly $45 billion with SpaceX.
Thus, Anthropic is trying to secure computing resources in advance amid rapidly growing demand for Claude. Earlier, the company also considered the possibility of leasing capacity from Meta data centers for up to $10 billion.
The agreement with SpaceX provided for Anthropic to receive up to 300 MW of computing capacity at the Colossus 1 facility in Memphis. Separately, the company announced cooperation with Google and Broadcom to develop computing infrastructure with a capacity of several gigawatts.
$71 billion for a data center in West Virginia
Anthropic's contract concerns the first of three buildings of the Monarch campus, which Nscale is deploying in West Virginia. Upon completion, the project will have a total capacity of about 1.35 GW.
According to Nscale's plans, the construction of the entire campus and its own power plant will cost about $71 billion, of which approximately $47 billion will be spent on AI chips. Servers in other buildings are expected to start operating in 2028.
Initially, Microsoft was supposed to be the tenant of this facility. In March, the company signed a letter of intent with Nscale regarding the data center, but withdrew from the project in the summer, after which Anthropic became the tenant.
After the complex is commissioned, it will directly provide about 645 jobs, with approximately 3,600 more jobs planned to be created indirectly in the state. During construction, about 4,375 workers will be employed.
For Nscale, the deal also has strategic significance ahead of a possible IPO. The company, which develops AI infrastructure on a neocloud model, plans to list in the US as early as next month. According to Bloomberg, Nscale reported to potential investors about approximately $51 billion in contracted revenue prior to the IPO.
Recall that Anthropic has also concluded an agreement with Google and Broadcom for gigawatt-scale AI capacities.
