Confirmed 12 Nov 2026 · Compute A one-minute read
A power company's withdrawn connection cost Nscale a $3.22 billion Microsoft contract.
Nscale's amended listing filing says one Microsoft statement of work worth $3.22 billion was terminated after the local power provider withdrew Loughton's grid connection date. Caveat: its other Microsoft work, up to $43.8 billion, stands.
Microsoft walked away from Nscale's Loughton site, as reported in October.
A power provider withdrew the connection, and the contract died with it.
Why it matters
The constraint on a London data centre was not demand, chips or financing. It was a connection date. Nscale keeps $43.8 billion of Microsoft work and $44.6 billion of Anthropic work, and says it is hunting alternative power. Every site holding a pending grid allocation now carries the same single point of failure.
Established
- One Microsoft statement of work valued at $3.22 billion was terminated.
- Nscale blames the local power provider withdrawing Loughton's connection date and allocation.
- Microsoft statements of work still total up to $43.8 billion through December 2033.
Not established
- Which power company it was. The filing does not name it.
- Whether Microsoft would have kept the work had power arrived.
- That alternative power exists. Nscale says it is exploring options.
The five-minute readThe record, the timeline, the weight and 3 sources
The record
Nscale plc filed Amendment No. 1 to its Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 12, 2026, accepted at 22:17 Universal Time, registration number 333-299011. We read it at sec.gov. It states: "Between September 2025 and April 2026, we entered into statements of work with Microsoft that provide for payments to us of up to approximately $43.8 billion through December 2033, not including the optional extensions." Then: "Subsequently, a single statement of work valued at $3.22 billion was terminated without any impact to any other statements of work." The cause given: "a site-specific development at our data center site in Loughton, UK, whereby the local power provider withdrew the connection date and the associated power allocation that was scheduled to be delivered to the site." Nscale adds that it remains "committed to both the Loughton project and the UK," is "exploring alternative power sources for the site," and that "this London-wide grid issue has no impact on our other contracts." The provider is not named. Other figures in the filing: take-or-pay contracts of $6.4 billion active and $105.8 billion of active and contracted total contract value, a 5.7-year weighted average contract life, and about 1.37 gigawatts of active and contracted capacity against a pipeline of roughly 10 gigawatts. Microsoft is to receive over 66,000 NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 chips starting in late 2027. The Anthropic services agreements run to approximately $44.6 billion, and Anthropic exercised its Building 2 right at the Monarch campus on September 29, 2026, starting a 60-day negotiation. Revenue was $140.6 million for the 6 months to June 30, 2026, up 1,252% on $10.4 million, against a net loss of $1,020.1 million and a net loss margin of 726%. Nscale has applied to list on the New York Stock Exchange under NSCL. No price range is set.
How it got here
- Sep 18
Nscale files its Form S-1 and publishes the contract figures behind the AI buildout for the first time. Edition 026 carded the filing.
- Sep 29
Anthropic exercises its right to contract additional compute at Building 2 of Nscale's Monarch campus, starting a 60-day good-faith negotiation that runs out in late November.
- Oct 18
The Telegraph reports Microsoft ended its agreement to anchor Loughton. Edition 055 carded it as Reported, with a November 18 verification date and no cause given.
- Nov 12
Amendment No. 1 gives the cause and the number: $3.22 billion terminated, the local power provider having withdrawn Loughton's connection date and power allocation. The fuse resolves 6 days early.
Microsoft, which keeps up to $43.8 billion of work with Nscale; the unnamed London power provider; Britain's energy regulator and the grid operator; Anthropic, with $44.6 billion of agreements and a Building 2 clock running; every operator holding a pending grid allocation; the underwriters pricing NSCL.
What to watch
- Would strengthen itA second operator discloses a terminated, repriced or delayed AI data centre contract naming a withdrawn grid connection or power allocation, anywhere, by June 30, 2027.
- Would strengthen itMicrosoft or Nscale states that the Loughton statement of work ended for reasons other than power, or Nscale secures power and announces a replacement deployment at Loughton, by March 31, 2027.
- Would strengthen itNscale prices its New York listing with the $43.8 billion Microsoft total and the $105.8 billion contracted value intact, by February 28, 2027.
Why it weighs this much
Cost is high: $3.22 billion of contracted payments is gone, disclosed in a registration statement weeks before pricing, which is the most expensive moment to publish bad news. Commitment is high because the words are Nscale's own, filed with a federal regulator, not a reporter's account. Reversibility is low: the statement of work is terminated, and while Nscale says it is exploring alternative power for Loughton, nothing in the filing restores the contract. Persistence is years. Grid connection queues in southeast England run into the 2030s, so a withdrawn allocation is not a quarter's problem.
The words
- Statement of work
- A contract under a master agreement covering one specific deployment. Cancelling one leaves the master agreement and the other statements in place.
- Grid connection date
- The date a power company commits to energise a site. Without it, a data centre is a building with nothing to sell.
- Take-or-pay
- A contract where the customer pays whether or not it uses the capacity. It makes contracted revenue close to certain.
- Form S-1 amendment
- A revised registration statement filed before a listing. New risks and events must be disclosed in it, under federal securities law.
Sources
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