Tech & AI
Nvidia in talks to guarantee debt for Nscale's West Virginia data centre built for Anthropic
The reported residual value guarantee would cover construction and power costs on a 460-megawatt site as the UK cloud firm's IPO runs into tougher market terms.
HedgeWeekly Tech & AI Desk ·
Nvidia is in talks to guarantee billions of dollars of debt for Nscale, the UK-based AI cloud provider, to fund a data-centre building in West Virginia that Anthropic plans to use, according to reports from The Information on Thursday and Bloomberg afterwards. The talks are unsigned and terms could change, and Nscale declined to comment to Bloomberg.
The Information said the support would be a residual value guarantee: if Nscale missed construction payments, Nvidia would step in, take over the site for a time and help find a buyer and a new tenant. That differs from Nvidia's earlier backing for cloud providers, which mainly covered leases and chip purchases. Nscale's IPO filings say Anthropic signed a contract worth about $44.6 billion for the first 460-megawatt building and can walk away if financing misses a set deadline. The two sides are reportedly discussing a second deal of around $45 billion.
The project has had problems. State regulators ordered a three-day construction halt in September after runoff flooded neighbouring homes, and Nscale has received 10 notices of violation over stormwater controls, according to the Financial Times. Nscale reported a net loss of $1 billion on $141 million of revenue in the first half of 2026. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia and other potential backers asked for stricter terms after markets turned, pushing the IPO towards December and prompting some bankers to warn it may fall short of a $30 billion to $35 billion valuation target.
Why it matters: the talks show how far AI chip suppliers are stepping into project finance to keep customer buildouts moving, which ties more of Nvidia's balance sheet to the credit of newer cloud firms. Per The Information, Nvidia has extended roughly $170 billion in investments and credit support to such customers. CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN each fell more than 30% in October, CNBC reported, and the new-cloud group has been largely shut out of the bond market. Watch whether a guarantee is signed, whether Nscale's IPO prices below its target, and whether Anthropic's second building proceeds.