By Dave Barr
Publication Date: 2026-10-31 08:14:00
Nvidia is in talks to guarantee billions in construction debt for a data center it doesn’t own, built for a tenant it doesn’t control. The bet is that AI demand holds up long enough to pay it off.
Nvidia is negotiating to act as a financial cosigner on Nscale’s AI data center project in Mason County, West Virginia, according to a report from TechCrunch published October 30. The arrangement is known as a residual value guarantee. It would have Nvidia step in if Nscale defaulted on construction payments, temporarily take over the facility, and help find a new buyer or tenant. The goal is to let Nscale borrow money for the site’s electricity and construction costs on terms it couldn’t get on its own.
The stakes are specific and large. Nscale’s IPO filing puts Anthropic’s existing commitment to the West Virginia campus, known as Monarch, at roughly $44.6 billion for the first building alone. That’s part of a total contracted backlog the company says has grown from $100 million to more than $103 billion in two and a half years. Nscale is a London-based AI cloud firm founded in 2024. It’s racing to build physical capacity fast enough to match contracts that size. Microsoft had been in talks to rent computing capacity at the site before walking away this summer, and the lease ultimately went to Anthropic. Nothing about this deal is finalized yet: negotiations are ongoing, Nvidia has not commented publicly, and Nscale has not confirmed the terms.
Here’s the part that…
