Microsoft has abruptly ended its data center agreement with British cloud provider Nscale, according to a report by Britain's Telegraph newspaper. The US tech giant, which is one of Nscale's two largest customers, recently terminated its contract for a data center in Loughton, Essex. The Telegraph did not disclose the reason behind Microsoft's withdrawal, and Microsoft has yet to respond to requests for comment.
The report highlighted that Nscale has encountered repeated delays with the project. National power grid officials reportedly informed Nscale that a power supply for the data center is not expected until the 2030s. Despite this setback, an Nscale spokesperson emphasized that the company's relationship with Microsoft remains strong and that the issue does not affect other contracts.
Nscale filed for an initial public offering in the US last month, with Microsoft and Anthropic anticipated to be its major customers. The Nvidia-backed AI group, which competes against CoreWeave, Nebius, Crusoe, and Lambda, has experienced rapid growth since its launch, scaling from $100 million to over $103 billion in total contracted value in just two-and-a-half years.