Nexus Data Centers is nearing final arrangements to secure $15 billion in financing to develop a new data center campus and power plant in Hubbard, Texas, with Google providing financial guarantees and supplying chips, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The funding package, expected to be announced soon, involves a loan consortium led by Morgan Stanley.
The proposed Hubbard campus will feature its own natural gas-fired power plant capable of generating approximately 1.6 gigawatts of electricity. This behind-the-meter facility is intended to support multiple data centers leased by Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup. Anthropic plans to install tensor processing units (TPUs)—chips co-designed by Google and Broadcom—at the campus. The chip equipment will be financed separately through a vendor-financing agreement between Anthropic and Broadcom.
Evercore is serving as the sole financial advisor to Nexus in the transaction, which includes a $14 billion bridge loan complemented by a revolving credit facility. Google has agreed to provide financial guarantees covering billions of dollars in Anthropic’s lease and power-purchase obligations in case of default. One source indicated that Google's guarantees cover the minimum amount required by lenders to facilitate the deal, thereby reducing risk by making Google responsible for payments if Anthropic fails to meet its commitments.
As part of the arrangement, Google is expected to receive an equity stake of about 20% in the combined data center and power infrastructure project. This strategic investment aligns with Anthropic’s broader effort to secure direct tenancy in infrastructure projects, moving away from the traditional model of renting servers from public cloud providers.
Anthropic has signed more than a dozen preliminary lease agreements with U.S.-based developers, targeting at least 10 gigawatts of data center capacity within the next several years. The leasing initiative is led by Tim Hughes, a former executive at Stack Infrastructure who joined Anthropic earlier this year.
Nexus, a relatively new player in the data center sector, was founded by energy industry veterans experienced in large-scale natural gas projects. CEO Ivan Van der Walt previously held executive roles at NextDecade, a Houston-based liquefied-natural-gas export company.
The financing approach reflects a broader industry trend in which established technology companies and chip manufacturers leverage their credit and balance sheets to support emerging AI startups’ capital-intensive infrastructure development. Anthropic’s chief competitor, OpenAI, is reportedly pursuing a comparable financial structure, including discussions with Nvidia regarding a $250 billion backstop for a proposed Ohio campus that could deliver up to 10 gigawatts of power.
This model illustrates how chip designers who supply critical hardware are often involved in guaranteeing the financing of the facilities that purchase their products, effectively intertwining the technology and infrastructure financing ecosystems supporting the rapid expansion of AI capabilities.