Nscale and Anthropic in talks over $45 billion cloud deal

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Oct 20, 2026, 20:00 UTC

On or around October 19, 2026, Bloomberg News reported that Nscale, a cloud computing provider backed by Nvidia, is in active negotiations with Anthropic over a cloud computing agreement valued at $45 billion. A subsequent report described this as a second such deal between the two companies, implying a prior arrangement of comparable scale is already in place. No completion date, spokesperson comments, or itemized breakdown of the $45 billion figure have been made public by either party. Nvidia's stake in Nscale means the chipmaker would stand to benefit indirectly should the agreement be finalized.

The scale of the figure, if accurate, places this among the largest individual cloud computing commitments in the AI industry to date. For Anthropic, a company that competes directly with OpenAI and requires enormous computational resources to train and run its Claude models, locking in dedicated infrastructure at this level would represent a significant strategic move. For Nvidia, whose GPUs underpin most AI cloud capacity, an arrangement of this size would further cement its position as the dominant hardware supplier in the AI buildout, even when its involvement is one step removed. What remains genuinely in dispute is whether these talks will close, on what timeline, and whether the $45 billion figure represents committed spend or an outer ceiling across a multi-year contract.

None of the three camps, Pro-AI, Anti-AI, or Middle Ground, have published specific reactions to this story yet. Pro-AI voices would typically welcome a deal of this kind as evidence that AI infrastructure investment is accelerating and that leading labs are securing the resources needed to push capabilities forward. Anti-AI commentators would likely raise concerns about the concentration of power implied by a small number of companies controlling infrastructure at this scale, and about the energy and resource demands such commitments entail. Middle Ground observers would probably focus on the financial risk and whether the underlying demand for Anthropic's services justifies obligations of this magnitude.

The clearest signal to watch for is any official confirmation or denial from Nscale or Anthropic, along with any disclosure of contract terms that would clarify the structure and duration of the $45 billion commitment. Nvidia's next earnings call or investor communications could also shed light on how the company is characterizing its indirect exposure to deals of this kind.