Google is reportedly backing a $15 billion financing package for an Anthropic-linked data center in Texas, according to reports from Reuters, Wall Street Journal, and Investing.com. A group of banks led by Morgan Stanley is discussing the package for Nexus Data Centers' planned campus in Hubbard, Texas. The proposed financing includes a $14 billion bridge loan and a revolving credit facility, though the size of the revolving facility and other lenders involved were not disclosed in the reports. The deal could be announced as soon as Thursday, marking a significant milestone in AI infrastructure financing. The initial phase alone is expected to cost upwards of $5 billion, with banks competing for the financing ahead of a mid-2026 deadline. Google is providing construction loan guarantees that essentially tell lenders it will back the project if things go wrong, demonstrating how established technology companies are using their balance sheets to fund infrastructure for newer AI developers.
Blackstone Inc. has held early discussions with investors to gauge interest in a second mega debt package to finance Anthropic PBC's use of chips from Alphabet Inc.'s Google, according to people with knowledge of the matter. One initial proposal was for at least $36 billion of debt, which would exceed the $35 billion of debt lined up by Apollo Global Management Inc. and Blackstone roughly two months ago to fund Anthropic's lease of Google's custom chips. That earlier package was one of the biggest private credit transactions in history. The details, including the size and structure and even whether Blackstone will ultimately lead the financing, are being discussed and may change, with representatives for Blackstone, Apollo, Anthropic and Google declining to comment.
Google has reportedly agreed to guarantee billions of dollars in lease and power-payment obligations if Anthropic defaults. According to the Wall Street Journal report, Google's backing would apply to four data-center leases signed by the AI developer and related agreements to purchase electricity from an on-site power plant. In exchange for these guarantees, Google is expected to receive an equity stake of around 20% in the combined data-center and power project. The guarantees remain limited to the minimum amount lenders require to complete the financing. This structure demonstrates how established technology companies are using their balance sheets to fund infrastructure for newer AI developers. The backing is part of Google's strategic play to ensure its most important AI partner has the compute infrastructure to stay competitive against OpenAI, Meta, and the growing list of well-funded challengers.
The Nexus campus spans roughly 2,800 acres in Hubbard, Texas, and includes a natural-gas-fired power plant capable of producing 1.6 gigawatts of electricity, as reported by Reuters. The on-site facility would allow the project to secure a large power supply without relying entirely on additional capacity from the Texas grid. The campus is targeting an initial capacity of around 500 MW, with potential to scale beyond that capacity. Access to electricity has become one of the main constraints on new US data centers, as AI facilities require large and continuous power supplies while new transmission lines and grid connections can take years to approve and construct. The campus will deploy tensor processing units at the site, which Google codesigns with Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO). A separate vendor financing agreement between Anthropic and Broadcom will cover the chip costs. Google's overall data center investment plans in Texas could approach $40 billion, reflecting the scale of the AI infrastructure arms race.
The Hubbard development is part of Anthropic's strategy to lease data centers directly instead of renting server capacity from cloud providers. The company has signed over a dozen preliminary lease agreements with U.S. developers and targets at least 10 gigawatts of capacity in coming years. In November 2025, Anthropic announced a $50 billion commitment to US AI infrastructure, including data centers in both Texas and New York, developed in partnership with Fluidstack. Tim Hughes, a former Stack Infrastructure executive hired this year, leads the leasing initiative. This trend reflects a broader pattern, with OpenAI discussing a similar arrangement with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) for a $250 billion backed Ohio campus that could reach 10 gigawatts. The financing package demonstrates how chip makers and technology companies are collaborating to fund AI infrastructure through structured partnerships, creating a real estate arms race where the capital flowing into data centers dwarfs most crypto fundraises combined.
