July 30 (Reuters) – Data-center developer Nexus Data Centers is in advanced talks to raise $15 billion for a Texas campus tied to Anthropic, with Alphabet’s Google offering financial guarantees and supplying chips, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Big Tech has been pouring billions of dollars into AI data centers and computing power as demand continues to outstrip supply.
Here are some details:
• A bank group led by Morgan Stanley is discussing financing for the project in Hubbard, Texas, which includes a natural-gas-fired power plant capable of producing 1.6 gigawatts of electricity, the report said.
• Google has agreed to guarantee billions of dollars of Anthropic’s lease and power-payment commitments if the startup defaults, according to WSJ. The tech giant’s backing was limited to the minimum level required by lenders to complete the financing.
• The guarantees cover four data-center leases signed by Anthropic and related power-purchase agreements for electricity from an on-site plant, the Journal said.
• The financing package includes a $14 billion bridge loan and a revolving credit facility, the newspaper reported. In return for its support, Google is expected to receive an equity stake of about 20% in the data-center and power project.
• Anthropic plans to equip the site with tensor processing units, chips co-designed by Google and Broadcom, according to the report. Those chips would be funded through a separate vendor-financing agreement between Anthropic and Broadcom.
• Anthropic declined to comment when contacted by Reuters, while Google and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Pooja Desai)