Google nears massive financing agreement for Anthropic's 500-megawatt data center project: Report

Google is reportedly nearing a multi-billion dollar financing agreement to support a massive data center project in Texas, leased by AI firm Anthropic and operated by Nexus Data Centers. The deal, expected to finalize in the coming weeks and potentially exceed $5 billion, involves Google providing construction loans for the site. This financial backing leverages Google parent Alphabet's strong credit rating to secure lower-cost financing from a consortium of banks for the initial project phase. The 2,800-acre data center campus, a part of Google's partnership with Anthropic, is already under construction and has received early-stage debt from asset manager Eagle Point. It is designed to deliver approximately 500 megawatts of capacity by early 2026, with long-term plans to expand to around 7.7 gigawatts. A key aspect of the project's location is its proximity to major gas pipelines operated by companies such as Enterprise, Energy Transfer, and Atmos, enabling Nexus to power the facility with its own gas turbines and reduce reliance on traditional grid connections. This strategy aligns with a growing trend among data center developers to incorporate behind-the-meter power technology to mitigate grid dependency, an approach also seen with Elon Musk's Colossus data centers and projects by Microsoft and Amazon. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) estimates that data center energy consumption in the state could reach 78 gigawatts by 2031, accounting for about 36 percent of Texas's total power demand, underscoring the significance of such large-scale energy solutions.