Rumor has it that NScale is negotiating to sell $45 billion of computing power to Anthropic, which is expected to boost the prospects for IPOs

The Zhitong Finance App learned that, according to people familiar with the matter, AI cloud computing company Nscale Ltd., is in talks to sell computing power to Anthropic PBC, and the transaction value may be about 45 billion US dollars. According to people familiar with the matter, the NVDA.US (NVDA.US) -backed data center developer is seeking a second major agreement with Claude developer Anthropic, involving a second facility at the Monarch data center campus in West Virginia. According to Nscale's IPO application documents, Anthropic has signed an infrastructure agreement with Nscale worth up to 44.6 billion US dollars.

According to some people familiar with the matter, the second Monarch building will provide 460 megawatts of computing power, using Nvidia's advanced Vera Rubin AI chip. They also claim that Anthropic has priority tenancy rights for Monarch's anticipated third building, that is, priority tenancy is possible under the same conditions.

People familiar with the matter said that the deal could be finalized in the next few days as soon as possible. Negotiations are still ongoing, details of the plan may change, and no final decision has yet been made. Representatives for both Anthropic and Nscale declined to comment.

Changes in IPO valuation expectations

If this deal is reached, it will be another multi-billion dollar computing power agreement and is expected to boost nScale's IPO prospects. The company is seeking a valuation of around $30 billion in the listing. However, people familiar with the matter recently said that recently, a group of investors urged the company to consider a valuation range of 16 billion to 19 billion US dollars, believing that this valuation is more likely to be favored by buyers. One important factor is that Australian AI data center company Firmus's IPO plan declared bankruptcy.

Anthropic is one of Nscale's largest customers and has also become an important customer within the data center provider community. The agreements it has signed include a $50 billion agreement with Fluidstack Ltd., a $10 billion agreement with infrastructure startup Volta Infrastructure Holdings Ltd., and a $45 billion agreement with Musk's SpaceX.

According to the IPO filing, Nscale's total electricity can be expanded to more than 8 gigawatts after the Monarch campus in West Virginia is fully completed.

Part of the Monarch campus was initially expected to be leased by Microsoft. Microsoft announced in March that it had signed a letter of intent for the planned data center. However, Microsoft reportedly pulled out of the West Virginia site in the summer, making Anthropic a tenant.

Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May. It is expected to carry out a major IPO in the coming months and continue to search for more computing power to maintain growth.

Investors are increasingly wary of the huge amount of money being borrowed to finance the AI data center boom. From chipmaker stocks to cloud computing company debt, sentiment on related assets turned cold. The stock prices of many of Nscale's peers have recently been hit hard. CoreWeave (CRWV.US)'s market capitalization evaporated by a quarter last week, and its credit risk index rose to an all-time high; Nebius (NBIS.US) shares fell 32% in the past two weeks.

Nscale publicly submitted an application for listing in the US on September 18. Although the required 15-day waiting period has passed, the company has yet to begin an official market launch. People familiar with the matter said that the company is currently processing comments from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on its filing documents and plans to launch a market promotion once these issues are resolved.

The London-based company just completed a pre-IPO round of $3.36 billion last month, led by Dan Loeb's Third Point. Participating institutions also include Nvidia, Apollo Global Management (APO.US), Citadel, Hudson Bay Capital, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Commission.