Nscale, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Caterpillar jointly announced deployment of 1.35GW of Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 GPUs at an AI factory campus in West Virginia.
Nscale has signed a letter of intent with Microsoft to provide 1.35 gigawatts of AI compute capacity at the West Virginia Monarch AI campus, deploying NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin NVL72 GPUs engineered with the NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory reference design. Nscale simultaneously announced the acquisition of American Intelligence & Power Corporation (AIPCorp), sponsored by Fidelis New Energy and 8090 Industries, which includes the Monarch Compute Campus—a site spanning up to 2,250 acres in Mason County, West Virginia, featuring the United States' first state-certified AI microgrid with a power runway scalable to over eight gigawatts. The infrastructure will be constructed and operated under a long-term framework combining an initial multi-year compute services term alongside a long-term data centre lease structure, with deployment across multiple tranches beginning in late 2027.
Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, stated that "This collaboration with Microsoft marks a pivotal milestone both for Nscale and the development of the Monarch Campus. By integrating our specialized AI infrastructure with Microsoft's global platform, we are creating a foundation for innovation that can scale alongside the most ambitious AI models in the world." Jon Tinter, President of Business Development and Ventures at Microsoft, emphasized that "Microsoft's datacenter approach is to build the best global infrastructure informed by near-term and long-term demand. Our investments blend owned datacenters, leased facilities, and strategic collaborations. This collaboration with Nscale and NVIDIA is an important step to deliver meaningful AI innovation to our customers."
The Monarch Compute Campus expands Nscale's current capacity of over 1GW against a backdrop of constrained AI infrastructure growth. McKinsey estimates AI-related data center capacity demand could reach 156 GW by 2030, with existing supply constrained by the pace at which power and new capacity can be brought online. The campus is positioned to offer high-speed fiber connectivity to major AI hubs, with proximity to Ashburn and Chicago providing customers with low latency and minimal delays for AI workloads.
Through a strategic collaboration with Caterpillar, Nscale will deploy Caterpillar G3500 series natural gas generator sets at sufficient scale to achieve two gigawatts of power generation by the first half of 2028. Melissa Busen, senior vice president of Electric Power at Caterpillar, noted that "Projects like Monarch demonstrate how Caterpillar's natural gas generation platforms are being deployed as core infrastructure for data centers and other power intensive applications where reliability, speed of deployment, and lifecycle performance are critical." Nico Caprez, Vice President of Global AI Infrastructure Growth at NVIDIA, added that "AI is becoming essential infrastructure for every industry. With this large-scale NVIDIA DSX AI Factory Blueprint, Nscale is building the infrastructure required to produce intelligence at industrial scale and power the next wave of global innovation."
Nscale is designing the campus with local and environmental considerations, generating power on-site to operate independently of the local grid and eliminate burden on existing utility customers. The microgrid is engineered to enable future tie-in to the grid for power export and includes carbon sequestration to offset emissions, leveraging West Virginia's significant sequestration capacity. Even at full 8GW capacity, the campus employs a high-efficiency design that consumes less water with no impact on municipal water supply or residential users.