According to The Information (subsequently confirmed by Bloomberg, relayed by TechCrunch): Nvidia is negotiating to provide a "residual value guarantee" for billions of dollars in construction debt for AI cloud provider Nscale's West Virginia campus—should Nscale default on construction payments, Nvidia would step in, temporarily take over the facility, and help find buyers and new tenants. The campus's first building (460 megawatts, planned to use Nvidia Vera Rubin chips) has been signed by Anthropic, with a contract value of 446 billion dollars according to Nscale's IPO filings, and the two parties are also negotiating a second contract worth approximately 450 billion dollars.
Confidence: Low (30) · Unverified · Event Date 2026-10-29
Rationale
- Nvidia's previous support for cloud providers primarily involved leases and chip purchases; this extension to construction financing effectively means the chip supplier is guaranteeing its customers' loans. According to The Information, Nvidia's cumulative investment and credit support for emerging cloud providers and major clients totals approximately 1700 billion dollars, and in 9, it committed 10 billion dollars in convertible financing to Nscale.
- Nscale is seeking an IPO at a valuation of up to 350 billion dollars, but according to TechCrunch, it had only about 2.5 thousand advanced AI chips running in 8, with plans to deploy nearly 50 thousand. The West Virginia construction site has also experienced multiple instances of runoff flooding nearby homes, and Microsoft exited one of its UK sites this month. An investor told The Information that Anthropic is the customer for this project, which is likely the reason Nvidia wants to secure it.
Usage
- None.
Risks
- Currently, this is only "under negotiation"; Nvidia, Nscale, and Anthropic have not publicly confirmed it. The original articles from The Information and Bloomberg are paywalled, and the editors have not read them.
- Contract amounts and chip quantities are sourced from TechCrunch's citations of Nscale's IPO filings and The Information; the editors have not found the original documents for verification.