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Google’s guarantees of power and lease obligations would help developer secure financing for the 1.6-gigawatt Texas project

A data-center developer working with Anthropic is in advanced talks to borrow $15 billion to build a massive new campus and power plant in Texas, with Google providing financial guarantees and chips, according to people familiar with the matter.

Under the deal being discussed, a consortium of banks led by Morgan Stanley would lend $15 billion to Nexus Data Centers to build the campus in Hubbard, Texas, which would have its own natural-gas power plant capable of generating 1.6 gigawatts of electricity. The deal could be announced as soon as today.

To help Nexus raise the debt, Google has provided guarantees for billions of dollars of Anthropic’s lease and power-payment obligations in the event the startup defaults, according to people familiar with the matter. Google’s support was limited and covered the minimum amount the banks required to get the financing done, one of those people said.

The guarantees cover four data-center leases Anthropic has signed, along with the corresponding power-purchase agreements, which will draw from a so-called behind-the-meter power plant that will support the campus.

Anthropic plans to fill the site with tensor processing units, the chip Google codesigns with Broadcom. The chips will be financed through a separate vendor-financing deal Anthropic struck with Broadcom, some of the people said.

The financing package consists of a $14 billion bridge loan and a revolving credit facility. In exchange for its support, Google is expected to receive an equity stake of roughly 20% in the data-center and power project, people familiar with the agreement said.

The Hubbard project is part of a broader effort by Anthropic to become a direct tenant on projects rather than simply renting servers from cloud providers. Anthropic has signed more than a dozen preliminary lease agreements with U.S. developers and is aiming for at least 10 gigawatts of capacity over the next several years, according to people familiar with the matter. The leasing push is led by Tim Hughes, a former Stack Infrastructure executive the company hired this year.

The arrangement illustrates how the companies behind the artificial-intelligence boom are increasingly using the balance sheets of investment-grade technology firms and chip suppliers to finance infrastructure for younger, unprofitable AI developers. Anthropic’s chief rival, OpenAI, has pursued a similar structure, holding talks with Nvidia to arrange a $250 billion backstop on an Ohio campus that could eventually draw 10 gigawatts.

The chip designers that stand to sell hardware into these facilities are the same firms guaranteeing the projects that will buy them.

Nexus is a relatively new data-center company, while Anthropic is committing to projects that require tens of billions of dollars before the facilities begin generating revenue. Google’s guarantees reduce the risk to lenders by making the technology giant responsible for certain payments if Anthropic can’t meet its obligations.

Google has provided financial backstops for other data centers where Anthropic is the ultimate customer, including former cryptocurrency miners TeraWulf and Hut8.

Google accounts for its backstops as credit derivatives, the company has said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Alphabet, Google’s parent, said last week that its maximum potential exposure from credit-derivative backstops had risen to $43.8 billion as of June 30.

If a tenant defaults, Google has favorable options. In some cases, it can take over the underlying leases and use the facilities itself or sublease them to other firms. It can also terminate its backstop obligation by paying a fee, according to SEC filings.

A key advantage of the location is its proximity to major gas pipelines. Nexus plans to generate electricity at the site using its own natural gas turbines. The goal is to avoid the lengthy utility interconnection process delaying data center developments across the country, the people familiar with the matter said. The approach, known as “behind-the-meter,” lets a campus build its own power instead of relying on the grid. The campus could eventually grow past the planned 1.6 gigawatt capacity.

Nexus was founded by energy-industry veterans who built large-scale natural-gas projects and are now trying to bring their megaproject experience to the booming data center sector. Chief Executive Ivan Van der Walt was previously an executive at NextDecade, a Houston-based developer of liquefied-natural-gas export facilities. NextDecade’s former chief financial officer has also joined Nexus.

Construction in Hubbard began in early 2025. The Financial Times earlier reported on some aspects of the financing.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms.

The highflying hedge fund run by Leopold Aschenbrenner is in crisis mode after AI-related bets sank

Situational Awareness, the once-highflying AI-focused hedge fund, sold the bulk of its stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s investment firm Citadel after suffering deep losses, according to people familiar with the matter.

It marks a sudden downfall for Situational, led by former OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner. It had amassed well over $20 billion in assets under management since its founding just around two years ago, making it one of the fastest-growing firms in years. Aschenbrenner, who is in his mid-20s, was seen by some as an AI oracle, with other investors closely tracking his firm’s movements as it placed big, leveraged bets.

As investors shed positions in artificial-intelligence related stocks, Situational was under pressure to raise cash, either through sales of holdings or new capital commitments, to meet margin-call demands from its lenders, some of the people familiar with the matter said.

Its public investments include companies in the AI supply chain such as memory-chip makers SK Hynix and Sandisk, fuel-cell maker Bloom Energy and AI cloud-computing provider Nebius Group. Shares in all of those companies had plummeted over the past month as investors soured on AI and technology stocks amid worries about massive capital expenditures and higher borrowing costs.

Shares of companies in Situational’s portfolio rose Thursday after news of Situational’s stock sales surfaced.

Situational had borrowed money from banks to amplify its bets on stocks. Citadel only purchased the portion of the firm’s public-stock portfolio that was financed with borrowed money, while the firm held onto the remainder that it funded with its clients’ capital, the people said.

Situational also still holds its private company investments, which include bets on AI giant Anthropic, some of the people familiar with the matter said. The multistrategy hedge-fund firm Millennium Management had also bid on Situational’s stock portfolio, those people said.

Aschenbrenner had no professional investing experience when he launched the firm with a few hundred million dollars.

Early backers included Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, as well as Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, who are both currently helping lead Meta Platforms’ AI efforts.

It was seen as a coup when Situational attracted institutional investors including quant trading firm Jane Street, which ranks among Wall Street’s most profitable firms and rarely allocates capital to outside managers.

Some investing veterans had watched Aschenbrenner’s ascendance with both envy and worry, concerned a sudden collapse would drag his stocks down.

Aschenbrenner rose to prominence with a 2024 essay, called “Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead,” that foresaw the path of AI’s development. He quickly attracted a cult-like following on the internet, and his investment firm’s routine regulatory filings are studied like scripture.

Citadel, with $71 billion in assets under management, is one of the world’s largest hedge-fund firms. It has a long record of acquiring assets from forced sellers.

CNBC earlier reported that Situational Awareness had sold its public investments, and Financial Times earlier reported the firm had been seeking fresh capital.

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