Nvidia May Co-Sign the Loans for Anthropic's West Virginia Data Center

Key points

• Nscale's S-1 filing with the SEC discloses that Anthropic has signed a $44.6 billion contract for the first building at Nscale's West Virginia campus.
• Nvidia is in discussions to provide a residual value guarantee on construction debt, meaning it would step in if Nscale stopped making payments.
• The West Virginia campus has been flooded more than once by construction runoff and won state certification only in September 2026 after months of negotiations.
• Nvidia has already committed $1 billion in convertible financing to Nscale, part of roughly $170 billion in total credit support it has extended across the AI cloud sector.
• Nscale is seeking a public valuation of up to $35 billion despite having roughly 25,000 advanced AI chips running in August, a fraction of the nearly 500,000 it plans to deploy.

The number on the table is almost too large to picture. One building, the first of at least two planned for a campus in West Virginia, carries a $44.6 billion contract from Anthropic, the AI safety company behind the Claude family of assistants. That figure comes directly from Nscale's S-1 registration statement, the document a company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission when it wants to sell shares to ordinary investors.

First reported by The Information and later confirmed by Bloomberg, Nvidia is now weighing whether to act as a financial guarantor on the construction debt that will pay for that building.

What would Nvidia actually be agreeing to?

It'd be agreeing to catch Nscale if it falls. Under a residual value guarantee, Nvidia would commit to stepping in if Nscale missed construction payments, taking temporary control of the facility and finding a buyer or new tenant. That's materially different from Nvidia's earlier support for cloud providers, which covered chip purchases and equipment leases rather than bricks and concrete.

Nvidia has already committed $1 billion in convertible financing to Nscale, and the chipmaker has extended roughly $170 billion in investments and credit support across the broader sector. A construction guarantee would push its exposure into new territory. Our story from 27 October, "Nvidia's Bet on AI Financing Hits Its First Real Test", found the chipmaker quietly becoming one of the biggest financial backers of the AI building boom at a moment when that bet was already starting to look expensive.

The building is designed around Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin chips, which helps explain Nvidia's direct interest in keeping the project alive. One investor told The Information that Anthropic's involvement is likely what makes Nscale worth backing.

Should investors be nervous?

Yes, and many already are. Nscale is pursuing an IPO at a valuation of up to $35 billion. The company had roughly 25,000 advanced AI chips running in August 2026, well short of the nearly 500,000 it plans to deploy. Runoff from the West Virginia construction site flooded nearby homes more than once. Microsoft this month pulled out of a planned Nscale site in England after grid power there was pushed into the 2030s.

Nscale isn't alone in struggling. Shares of CoreWeave and IREN had each fallen more than 30% in October 2026 as of last week, with Nebius matching that drop. These companies, sometimes called neoclouds because they rent AI computing power without a large profitable business behind them, depend heavily on debt and partner backing to fund construction that costs billions before a single chip is switched on.

It's also worth watching Anthropic's own position here. The company filed for a Nasdaq IPO this week, and Blackstone has warned investors it may receive a below-investment-grade credit rating after listing. A junk rating would raise its borrowing costs and could push it further toward arrangements like this one.

For anyone considering Nscale shares: the company has enormous contracts and serious execution problems, with financial dependencies that may now extend all the way to its chip supplier. Watch Nscale's final IPO prospectus. It'll have to disclose the terms of any Nvidia guarantee. If that guarantee isn't there when shares list, it's worth asking what fell through.