Banks in Talks to Lend $15 Billion for Anthropic Data Center Backed by Google
Google’s guarantees of power and lease obligations would help developer secure financing for the 1.6-gigawatt Texas project
- Nexus Data Centers is in talks to borrow $15 billion to build a Texas campus for Anthropic, backed by financial guarantees from Google.
- Google is expected to receive an equity stake of roughly 20% in the project and will supply its TPU chips.
- The campus will feature its own 1.6-gigawatt natural-gas power plant to avoid utility interconnection delays.
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.
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