Anthropic’s push to feed demand for its Claude models began with a first Nscale agreement reported in August, part of a broader run of infrastructure partnerships with AMD, SpaceX, Google and Broadcom. The company has said surging use of Claude has put “inevitable strain” on its infrastructure.¹

Now, Anthropic is reportedly in talks to lease capacity at a second 460-megawatt data centre at the same West Virginia site. The prospective agreement could be worth about $45 billion, according to a person familiar with the negotiations; Anthropic declined to comment, while Nscale was approached for comment.¹

The timing makes the proposed expansion more than a simple vote of confidence in a fast-growing supplier. Nscale is among the so-called neoclouds building or leasing data centres and selling computing power to AI labs and hyperscalers — a capital-intensive model that investors have begun to scrutinise. In the past month, rivals CoreWeave and Nebius saw their shares fall 28% and 27%, respectively, amid concern over heavy borrowing.¹

Over the weekend, the pressure became more tangible. The Telegraph reported that Microsoft had withdrawn from an agreement to anchor an Nscale data-centre project outside London after delays connecting the site to the UK power grid. Nscale’s response was defiant rather than dismissive: it said it remained “committed” to the project and was “exploring alternative power sources for the site.”¹

The company also maintained that its relationship with Microsoft was “strong and long-term,” and said the London-wide grid problem had “no impact on our other contracts.”¹ If the West Virginia talks produce a deal, that claim will face a far larger test: delivering hundreds of megawatts of reliable power for one of AI’s hungriest customers.