Nvidia is in talks to provide Nscale, an AI cloud provider, with a credit guarantee worth several billion dollars, according to The Information. The guarantee would support debt financing for a data center in West Virginia that is planned for use by Anthropic. Bloomberg later confirmed the report. The agreement has not been signed and its terms may change; Nvidia, Nscale and Anthropic have not responded publicly.
What the guarantee covers
As TechCrunch relays it, the guarantee targets the campus's power and construction costs and takes the form of a residual value guarantee. If Nscale defaults on its construction payments, Nvidia would step in, temporarily take over the facility, and then help find a buyer or new tenants.
Nvidia's earlier support for neocloud providers has mostly meant guaranteeing leases and helping customers buy chips; it has rarely stood directly in the construction phase. Its quarterly report for the period ended July 26 shows maximum guarantee exposure of $108.5 billion in total. Of that, $105 billion comes from an OpenAI-related arrangement with SB Energy, and another $3.5 billion covers land, power and building guarantees tied to data center leases of AI cloud partners. The Information counts roughly $170 billion in cumulative investment and credit support from Nvidia to neocloud providers and major customers, including a $1 billion convertible financing for Nscale in September.
The campus and the contract
In listing documents filed in September, Nscale disclosed that the contract for Anthropic's first building is worth up to about $44.6 billion, with payments tied to delivery milestones and service availability. Bloomberg reported in August that the contract runs six years and corresponds to about 460 megawatts of power; Nscale plans to use Nvidia Vera Rubin chips, with capacity coming online from the second half of next year. In mid-October, Reuters and Bloomberg further reported that the two sides are negotiating a second building, also worth about $45 billion.
A rough calculation: spreading $44.6 billion across 460 megawatts works out to about $97 million of contract value per megawatt, or roughly $7.4 billion a year on a six-year average. That revenue arrives only after the halls are built and compute is delivered, yet power and civil works must be paid for up front. The guarantee is meant to cover that timing gap.
Where each party stands
Nscale is pushing ahead with an IPO and is seeking a valuation of up to $35 billion. According to TechCrunch, it was running about 25,000 advanced AI chips in August and plans to deploy nearly 500,000. During construction of the West Virginia campus, stormwater runoff repeatedly flooded nearby homes, and the company obtained state-level certification only in September after months of negotiation. This month, Microsoft pulled out of an Nscale site in England after grid connection was pushed back to the 2030s.
The neocloud segment as a whole is under pressure. CNBC data show that, as of mid-October, CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN had each fallen more than 30% for the month. Anthropic filed for an IPO this week, and Blackstone has warned investors that it could be rated below investment grade after listing; a lower rating would raise borrowing costs and make it more dependent on stronger-credit partners to back related debt. The Information, citing an investor, said Anthropic as the customer is the main reason Nvidia wants the project to stay on schedule.
Whether the guarantee ultimately exceeds $5 billion is so far only a claim on social media; official figures have not been disclosed.
Sources: The Information, Bloomberg, CocoLoop, TechCrunch, Reuters; verified the guarantee structure, the contract value in Nscale's listing documents, and the guarantee exposure in Nvidia's quarterly report.