Microsoft rejects option to expand Nscale Texas deal

Microsoft has rejected an option to more than double its agreement to rent computing power from Nscale at a Texas data centre, walking away from a potential expansion worth tens of billions of dollars, the Financial Times reported.

Why it matters: Nscale filed for a US listing in September with Microsoft expected to be a major customer, so a second Microsoft withdrawal in weeks, after it pulled out of anchoring the company's Loughton project in England, cuts into the contracted demand behind the offering.

Data as of Reuters report of November 5, 2026, read in full in this run via a syndicated copy after the original Investing.com item could not be fetched; the underlying report is the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report, and neither Microsoft nor Nscale had responded to requests for comment, so the item is single sourced and graded C. Developing item.

Microsoft has rejected an option to more than double the size of its existing agreement with Nscale to rent computing power at a Texas data centre, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The rejected expansion was a potential deal worth tens of billions of dollars.

The report comes weeks after Microsoft pulled out of a deal to anchor Nscale’s flagship data centre project in Loughton, Essex, after power connection delays pushed its expected supply date into the 2030s. Nvidia backed Nscale filed for a US initial public offering in September, with Microsoft and Anthropic expected to be among its major customers, and Reuters reported last month that Nscale was in talks to sell computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth about $45 billion.

Microsoft rejects option to expand Nscale Texas deal

Sources