Microsoft Kills Nscale Loughton Deal Over Expected Power Delays

Microsoft has terminated its contract for Nscale's planned AI data center in Loughton, England, after delays to the site's expected power connection.

Nscale announced the Loughton project in 2025 as a 50 MW campus that could scale to 90 MW. Plans called for deploying 23,040 Nvidia GB300 GPUs for Microsoft Azure.

Nscale's September IPO filing reported $103.4 billion in active and contracted total contract value as of Aug. 31, 2026, compared with $2.6 billion in active contract value.

Separate agreements with Anthropic provided for up to $44.6 billion.

UK Power Networks told Nscale it could not supply enough electricity for the site until the early to mid-2030s, well after the project's planned opening, The Guardian reported. "Capacity that isn't energized generates no revenue, but the costs keep running," said Alex Cordovil, research director at Dell'Oro Group.