Last week's scare over a potential slowdown in data center buildouts has subsided for now, but that doesn't mean it's over and done.
One new sign of ongoing softness: neocloud Nscale, which is backed by Nvidia and has previously disclosed deals to supply computing power to Anthropic, Microsoft, and ByteDance, is considering delaying its initial public offering, according to a report in The Telegraph.
The report comes as the size of Anthropic's valuation, according to its latest federal filing, has shrunk to $1.4 trillion, down from the $2 trillion previously floated by Wall Street.
It also follows a pullback in Nvidia stock in recent days, over concerns about CEO Jensen Huang's affair with an alleged Chinese spy, Alice Huang. Nvidia has committed to investing $1 billion in Nscale with funding expected by midmonth, according to an announcement in September. Its share price has fallen 10% in the last two days and is down more than 9% in 2026.
Nscale's IPO, expected later this year or in early 2027, could value it at as much as $30 billion, although that may be an aspirational figure. Investors have been pushing back on that number, placing the firm's value at between $16 billion and $19 billion, Bloomberg reported in October.
Earlier this month, Nscale also missed out on a big chunk of potential revenue when Microsoft declined to expand its deal with the London-based neocloud for a data center buildout in Texas, according to media reports. Nscale said in a preliminary prospectus filed in September that Microsoft would pay it up to $43.8 billion through 2033, "subject to the satisfaction of delivery and availability of service requirements." That figure excluded "optional extensions," however.
Nscale declined to comment on both the new report as well as the earlier one on its Texas data center. Microsoft also declined to comment on the data center deal.
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