Nscale Acquires Monarch Campus and Secures 1.35GW AI Deal with Microsoft in West Virginia Build-Out

New updates have been reported about Nscale.

Nscale is making a major capacity leap by acquiring American Intelligence & Power Corporation and its Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, W.Va., while signing a letter of intent with Microsoft for up to 1.35 gigawatts of AI compute built on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin NVL72 systems and DSX AI Factory design. The Monarch site spans up to 2,250 acres, is recognized as the first state-certified AI microgrid in the U.S., and can scale on-site power to more than 8 gigawatts, positioning Nscale as a flagship global deployment partner for NVIDIA’s next-generation architecture.

Under the Microsoft collaboration, Nscale will develop and operate advanced AI data centers at Monarch, with deployments beginning in late 2027 and structured through a multi-year compute services agreement and long-term data center lease, making the campus one of the world’s largest dedicated AI installations and expanding Nscale’s current capacity of over 1GW. To secure power at scale and compress build timelines, Nscale will also work with Caterpillar to install G3500 natural gas generator sets targeting 2GW of on-site generation by the first half of 2028, while designing the microgrid to run independently of the local utility grid, enable future power export, minimize water use, and pursue carbon sequestration in West Virginia, all as demand for AI data center capacity is projected to surge sharply toward 2030.