Status: Groundbreaking / Pre-Construction (Letter of Intent signed March 2026) | Location: Multi-acre secure campus in West Virginia
Announced on March 16, 2026, at NVIDIA GTC, the collaboration between Nscale and Microsoft marks the development of the Monarch AI Campus as one of the most advanced large-scale AI infrastructure deployments globally. Designed as a flagship implementation of NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin NVL72 platform, the project represents a new class of hyperscale “AI Factory” built specifically for high-intensity generative AI training and inference workloads. Under a long-term agreement, Nscale will deliver and operate approximately 1.35 GW of dedicated AI compute capacity exclusively for Microsoft, signaling a major step toward vertically integrated AI infrastructure.
The campus leverages NVIDIA’s Rubin DSX reference architecture, enabling dynamic interaction with the power grid while optimizing workload distribution and energy efficiency. A key differentiator is its hybrid on-site energy generation model, which enhances grid resilience and ensures consistent power delivery for ultra-high-density compute clusters powered by Vera CPUs and Rubin GPUs. Strategically located in West Virginia, the facility benefits from proximity to major cloud interconnection hubs such as Ashburn and Chicago, enabling ultra-low latency connectivity and positioning it as a critical node in North America’s AI infrastructure network.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Project Name | West Virginia AI Data Center | Nscale & Microsoft 1.35GW GPU Infrastructure Hub |
| Location | Multi-acre secure campus in West Virginia |
| Status | Groundbreaking / Pre-Construction (Letter of Intent signed March 2026) |
| Project Type | Gigawatt-Scale AI Factory |
| Commissioning | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Total IT Load | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Total Capacity | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Tier Level | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Header | Details |
|---|---|
| City Name | Virginia |
| Population | ≈ 1.77 million |
| Urban Agglomeration | ≈ 1.05 million (Charleston–Huntington–Parkersburg combined urban influence) |
| Economic Profile | 🔒 Detailed city intelligence available to subscribers |
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