Nvidia acts as matchmaker, helping Anthropic reach a $35 billion computing power agreement with AI cloud provider Lamda.

The battle for computing power continues to intensify, and Nvidia's role has long surpassed that of a chip supplier.

According to a Wall Street Journal report on August 31, sources familiar with the matter revealed that AI startup Anthropic has signed a $35 billion cloud computing deal with Lambda, a cloud service provider backed by Nvidia. Nvidia itself holds the leases for the relevant data centers. This is Anthropic's second multi-billion dollar computing power deal this year, and the latest example of Nvidia's deep involvement in the AI computing power supply chain, acting as a "matchmaker."

The deal is quite complex: the data center is being developed by data center developer Hut 8 in Nueces County, Texas. Nvidia signed an agreement with Hut 8 several weeks ago to secure the capacity, and Lambda will then use the site to deploy chips sourced from Nvidia to provide cloud computing services to Anthropic. This arrangement allows Lambda to secure a high-value contract with Anthropic without having to acquire data center space itself.

Analysts believe that the significance of this deal for the market lies in the fact that Nvidia is extending its influence from hardware sales to capital and business arrangements across the entire AI infrastructure ecosystem, while Anthropic's hunger for computing power amid rapid product rollout is reshaping the competitive landscape of the cloud computing market.

Anthropic is facing a computing power crisis; it has already signed two multi-billion dollar deals this year.

Anthropic encountered a bottleneck in computing power supply earlier this year, coinciding with a rapid increase in the market penetration of its products, which triggered a wave of intensive cloud capacity procurement.

According to reports, sources familiar with the matter revealed that earlier this month, Anthropic signed a $45 billion agreement with Nscale, another emerging cloud service provider backed by Nvidia, to lease Nvidia's computing resources in West Virginia.

This $35 billion deal with Lambda is Anthropic's second large-scale computing power lock-up in a short period. The two deals, totaling $80 billion, highlight the urgent need for computing resources among leading AI developers and their long-term commitment to ensuring supply.

Nvidia's "matchmaking" logic: exchanging credit endorsement for ecosystem control

The core structure of this transaction reflects NVIDIA's increasingly strengthened strategic layout in the AI computing power ecosystem.

Anthropic is not an investment-grade credit rating company, which presents certain obstacles to acquiring large-scale data center resources through traditional financing channels. Nvidia, by holding data center leases, effectively provided credit backing for the transaction, enabling Anthropic to circumvent this restriction and complete the acquisition of computing power.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Nvidia announced a plan in July to provide credit support to emerging cloud service providers such as Lambda in exchange for a share of its cloud revenue.

However, the report also noted that Nvidia has recently suspended some transactions under the plan. It remains unclear whether Lambda is required to share revenue generated by its Texas site with Nvidia, and the specific amount of data center usage fees Lambda pays Nvidia has also not been disclosed.

Hut 8: A "Dual-Line Player" Serving Both Nvidia and Google

In this transaction, the role of data center developer Hut 8 is particularly noteworthy—this Bitcoin mining company is simultaneously providing infrastructure services to two competing camps in the same region.

In July of this year, Hut 8 disclosed that a "high-investment-grade company" had signed a 15-year lease to use the full capacity of its 700-megawatt campus in Texas, but did not disclose the tenant's name. Hut 8 stated at the time that the $20 billion facility would be designed specifically to support Nvidia chips.

Meanwhile, Hut 8 is also developing another batch of data centers specifically for Anthropic, which will be equipped with Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs)—the latter directly competing with Nvidia chips. Google provided financial guarantees for these projects, assisting Hut 8 in debt financing.

This means that Hut 8 is providing computing infrastructure for Nvidia's Lambda-Anthropic deal in the same region, while also supporting the Anthropic project under Google's TPU ecosystem, making it a rare "double beneficiary" in the current AI computing power arms race.

Analysts believe that this series of transactions indicates that emerging cloud service providers (neocloud), represented by Lambda and Nscale, are leveraging Nvidia's capital and credit support to rapidly enter the market originally dominated by hyperscale cloud vendors such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, and to obtain long-term, stable, high-value contracts by directly binding themselves with AI developers.

Nvidia's role in this model has evolved from a simple hardware supplier to a driver of "infrastructure financialization" in the computing power ecosystem. By holding leases, providing credit support, and investing in emerging cloud providers, Nvidia embeds its own interests into multiple links of the AI computing power supply chain, building a more sticky source of revenue beyond chip sales.

However, the report also points out that Nvidia's recent suspension of some emerging cloud merchant credit support programs suggests that this model is still in the exploratory stage, and the sustainability and risk exposure of the relevant arrangements need further observation.

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