Anthropic and Nscale Reportedly Near a Second $45 Billion Compute Deal

Anthropic and AI infrastructure provider Nscale are reportedly close to signing a second $45 billion compute deal, barely a month after announcing their first one of the same size. Bloomberg broke the news, citing people familiar with the matter, who cautioned that talks are still under way and that the details could change.

The number itself is the story. Two $45 billion agreements between the same two companies, announced within weeks of each other, would push their combined commitment to $90 billion in compute capacity. That scale tells you where the AI industry's money is flowing right now: not into products, but into the raw hardware needed to train and run models.

By Sophie Lindqvist

What exactly is being reported?

Bloomberg's sources say the two companies are on the verge of announcing another $45 billion arrangement, mirroring the deal Anthropic and Nscale unveiled a little over a month ago. The sources flagged two important caveats: the negotiations aren't finished, and the terms could shift before anything is signed.

Neither company has confirmed the talks publicly. TechCrunch reached out to both Nscale and Anthropic for comment and said it will update its story if it hears back. Until one of the two companies speaks on the record, the $45 billion figure rests entirely on Bloomberg's unnamed sources.

The takeaway: a second deal of identical size may be coming, but nothing is signed, and the details could still change.

Why does this matter for the AI compute market?

If the deal goes through, it becomes the latest in a long string of giant compute agreements Anthropic has struck over the past year. The company has been locking in infrastructure capacity at a pace that rivals anything else in the industry, betting that access to computing power will decide who wins in AI.

That bet has critics. A certain segment of investors is spooked by the massive amounts of money being sunk into AI compute deals, worrying that companies are spending too much money for too little profit. The concern is straightforward arithmetic: billions committed now have to eventually translate into revenue that justifies them.

Anthropic has pressed on regardless, driven by the belief that it will all pay off in the end. The company's behavior suggests it sees compute scarcity, not compute cost, as the real risk to its business.

The takeaway: the industry is split between companies betting everything on compute and investors questioning whether the spending will ever earn its keep.

What's happening with the two IPOs?

Both companies in this reported deal are also pursuing public listings, which adds a layer of timing pressure to everything else.

Anthropic is still expected to go public this year. Nscale is seeking to go public as well, but Bloomberg reported today that the infrastructure provider is experiencing investor pushback over its proposed valuation of $30 billion.

That pushback matters contextually. A company trying to justify a $30 billion valuation while simultaneously negotiating a $45 billion compute contract is effectively asking public-market investors to underwrite the same spending logic that has already spooked some of its private backers. The two stories — the mega-deal and the valuation friction — are two sides of the same question: how much is AI compute capacity actually worth?

The takeaway: both firms want to reach public markets soon, and Nscale is hitting resistance on price before it gets there.

What happens next?

Three things to watch:

• A formal announcement, if the talks conclude. Bloomberg's sources expect a deal on the verge of being announced, so confirmation could come quickly — or the details could change first.
• Responses from either company. Neither Nscale nor Anthropic has commented so far; TechCrunch says it will update its reporting if it hears back.
• Nscale's IPO path. Investor pushback over the $30 billion valuation could force a rethink before a listing, and a signed $45 billion deal would become part of that conversation.

If the second deal closes, Anthropic and Nscale will have committed a combined $90 billion to compute in roughly a month — and the market will keep asking whether that's foresight or overreach.