Announced at GTC 2026, the deal covers around 430,000 next-generation NVIDIA GPUs, is backed by a Caterpillar natural gas power deal, and is built on a site described as the US’s first state-certified AI microgrid, with an 8GW potential footprint.

Nscale has signed a letter of intent with Microsoft to provide 1.35 gigawatts of AI compute capacity at a new campus in Mason County, West Virginia, deploying NVIDIA’s next-generation Vera Rubin NVL72 GPUs at what it describes as the first large-scale commercial rollout of the Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory reference architecture.

The deal, announced at NVIDIA’s GTC 2026 conference on 16 March, covers approximately 430,000 Vera Rubin GPUs and is structured as a long-term framework combining a multi-year compute services agreement with a long-term data centre lease.

Deliveries will begin in late 2027 and be phased across multiple tranches. The deployment will sit on a site Nscale has simultaneously acquired, the Monarch Compute Campus, a 2,250-acre plot in Mason County that Nscale describes as the first state-certified AI microgrid in the United States, with an on-site power potential scalable to over eight gigawatts.

Nscale acquired the campus by purchasing American Intelligence & Power Corporation (AIPCorp), which was sponsored by Fidelis New Energy and 8090 Industries.

“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.”  – Josh Payne, CEO, Nscale

Power: 2GW from Caterpillar natural gas generators by H1 2028

Powering a campus of this scale at speed is the critical engineering challenge, and Nscale’s solution is to go off-grid rather than wait for utility-scale grid connections that could take years to secure. Through a strategic collaboration with Caterpillar, the company will deploy G3500 series natural gas generator sets to achieve two gigawatts of on-site power generation by the first half of 2028.

The campus will operate independently of the local electricity grid, which Nscale says eliminates the burden on existing utility customers and protects ratepayers’ bills. The design also allows for future connection to the grid and potential export of power back to it.

“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.”  – Melissa Busen, Senior Vice President of Electric Power, Caterpillar

Nscale is also pursuing carbon sequestration to offset emissions from the natural gas generators, citing access to sequestration capacity in West Virginia.

The company says the high-efficiency design consumes less water with no impact on municipal supply even at full 8GW capacity, a claim it has not independently substantiated but which reflects the regulatory and community sensitivity that large-scale AI campuses now face in their siting decisions.

The Monarch deal deepens an existing commercial relationship. Microsoft is already a customer at Nscale’s Narvik data centre in Norway, where the company has operational capacity today as part of its European infrastructure footprint. Aker ASA’s CEO, Øyvind Eriksen, who sits on the Nscale board following the company’s integration of the Aker Nscale joint venture, confirmed in a regulatory filing on 16 March that the Monarch LOI further strengthens a collaboration that is already generating revenue for Nscale.

“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.”  – Jon Tinter, President, Business Development and Ventures, Microsoft

“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.”  – Nico Caprez, Vice President, Global AI Infrastructure Growth, NVIDIA

Context: Nscale at $14.6 billion, one week in

The Monarch announcement lands one week after Nscale closed what it has called the largest Series C in European history: $2 billion led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with participation from Astra Capital Management, Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Point72.

That round valued the UK-based company at $14.6 billion and was placed by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, an advisory combination widely read as early IPO preparation. Nscale CEO Josh Payne has previously indicated the company may seek to go public as early as 2026.

Founded in 2024, Nscale has moved with unusual speed. Its current operational data centre footprint includes sites in Glomfjord and Narvik in Norway, Loughton in the UK, and Texas in the US. In February 2026, it signed a $1.4 billion delayed draw term loan backed by its GPU fleet.

The Monarch acquisition, when combined with its existing 1GW-plus of operational capacity and the Microsoft LOI, positions the company as one of the largest announced AI compute deployments in the US market today, if it executes.

The proximity of the Mason County site to major AI and cloud hubs is a deliberate feature of the selection: Nscale cites its relatively short distance from Ashburn, Virginia, the world’s densest data centre cluster, and Chicago, offering customers low latency for AI workloads that require fast connection to adjacent infrastructure.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Lights, camera, action. Movies are returning to downtown Charleston.

Park Place Cinema, the 11-screen theater that closed its doors in May 2024, will reopen this spring.

“Starting in April, we’re going to open the doors, the arcade, the movie theaters are going to be open, the popcorn is going to be popping,” an all-smiles Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said Monday in Park Place’s lobby.

Goodwin said it was tough news to swallow in May 2024 when the former owners closed it down.

“It’s just a theater, it’s not just movie screens and seats, it’s a place for us to connect and I think that’s what people have missed the most about it,” Goodwin said.

Charleston City Council is set to approve a one-year lease Monday night with The Greater Charleston Theater Company and Entertainment Group. The city owns the building where the theatre and adjoining parking garage are located on Washington Street East.

Theater Company and Entertainment Group Manager Rob Faulkner, who started working at Park Place in 1993, said he and former Park Place General Manager Mike Tawney saw an opportunity.

“A lot of outcry came out when it closed and a lot of people speaking further on how their childhood was here and what they miss about it. We just want to give them an opportunity to come back,” Faulkner said.

The Huntington-based Hyman family previously owned the theater from when it opened in 1981 to 2024.

“We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who has been part of our journey. Your support, laughter, and shared moments have made the Park Place Cinemas an enduring part of the Charleston community,” Park Place said.

Owner Derek Hyman told MetroNews it’s a tough business.

“We are not unique. This is something that is happening in the theatre business. There are other theatres closing down. We have theatre we closed in Cincinnati just last week,” Hyman told MetroNews at the time.

Covid hurt Park Place but also competition, Hyman said.

Faulkner said he believes the community will welcome it back.

“We definitely need the support to keep the doors open. Make no mistake about it. The crowd wasn’t the same (after covid),” Faulkner said.

Charleston City Councilman Emmett Pepper got his first job at Park Place when he was high school. He was back Monday and ready to watch a movie.

“I think this is a place where people build memories,” Pepper said. “I took my son here to see his first film. I think we need to build more memories here. People are passionate about it.”

Pepper said a successful West Virginia Film Festival at the venue last fall was an encouraging sign that the theater could reopen.

Goodwin said the city’s one-year lease with the ownership group is based on ticket sales.

“A price for every ticket they sale. They are taking over all of the utilities,” Goodwin said.

The lease that council will approve said 50 cents of each ticket sold from the prior month will go to the city.

Goodwin said there’s an opportunity to renew the one-year lease twice.

Goodwin said she’s optimistic about the future.

“When you walked through the doors today and you smelled the popcorn it all came back,” she said.

The Theater Group plans to have movies in 9 of the 11 theaters and use the other two theaters for a variety of events.

The Republican majority in the House of Delegates gathered a month prior to the regular legislative session to lay out priorities, especially in policies aimed at economic growth.

On the final day of the session, Delegate Clay Riley, the vice chairman of the House Finance Committee, said much of that mission was accomplished.

“Jobs First, Opportunity Everywhere: There were really three pillars to that. It was our workforce ready education, it was our job creating business climate and responsible economic development,” said Riley, R-Harrison. “We were able to pass 16 of those bills out of the House this year.”

In a conversation on the House floor, he emphasized several:

The skills to work act: “Really getting our kids to get ready to enter into that workforce.”

Industrial access roads and business ready sites: “Job creating, business economy.”

And an airport development hangar fund: “Responsible economic development.”

Riley said delegates started developing the agenda last April or May, “and we said ‘What do we begin to do?’” He said that will likely happen again on issues like brownfields development. “I fully expect us to do that again,” he said.

Kitchen Table focus

The Democratic Caucus in the House of Delegates spent weeks last year traveling around the state to listen to West Virginians. That helped them develop a “Kitchen Table” agenda.

That meant an emphasis on practical issues like utility bills, healthcare, childcare and housing. The Democrats have just  just 9 out of 100 House members so that meant continuing to push.

House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said the minority caucus was able to use its focus to influence the entire chamber. The result, he said, was the House of Delegates as a whole emphasizing development and affordability issues — with less focus on culture issues.

“I think it was huge,” Hornbuckle said. “And I think you have to give it context from our Kitchen Table Tour. First of all, our Kitchen Table Tour completely changed the trajectory of the West Virginia Legislature. Prior years it was all about divisive issues and things that did not move the needles.

“Now we have not had a lot of landmark legislation this session, but noticeably, Republicans changed their tune and went very much in a pro-business direction. That is directly attributed to us in talking about kitchen table issues.”

Focus on consumers

AARP of West Virginia focused on a range of consumer protection issues, in particular legislation meant to better regulate the kinds of cryptocurrency kiosks that have been popping up in storefronts.

The organization for older Americans called that push a success that will result on better consumer protections for West Virginia.

H. B. 5353, backed by the organization, proposes a comprehensive legal framework to integrate virtual currency kiosks into the state’s existing money transmission laws.

Roger Calhoun, volunteer state president for AARP West Virginia, said the legislation will put up guardrails.

“There’s been many, many cases — millions of dollars of people who’ve been talked into going down to a crypto kiosk machine, putting in money, to pay a fine, to get their kid out of jail, to pay their house payment, to take care of fraud at a bank — just all kinds of scams, pushing thousands of dollars that goes into a machine, gives them no receipt,” he said.

He continued, “We think we had a fraud package this year. We also had a package dealing with gift card fraud. As you may be aware, that’s also a place the scammers talk people into going to buy gift cards to pay off something, to pay off some kind of debt, a fine. So we got to see legislation that’s going to be helpful.”

Not everyone was pleased by legislative results.

Attempt to lower property taxes fails

Senate Finance Chairman Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, blamed the House of Delegates for not acting on a proposed amendment to the West Virginia Constitution regarding property tax relief.

“They just took non action on it,” Barrett said.

The resolution aimed to double the existing homestead exemption for qualifying residents from $20,000 to a minimum of $40,000. If voters had a chance to approve it, the amendment would have provided substantial tax benefits to homeowners who are permanently disabled or at least 65 years old.

Moreover, the proposal would have granted individual counties the authority to further increase this exemption amount through local ballot initiatives.

Senate Joint Resolution 11, with Barrett as the lead sponsor, was adopted by the Senate on Friday. In the House of Delegates, it never moved.

Barrett said he was “highly disappointed.”

“Apparently, the House of Delegates just doesn’t see that helping seniors with their property taxes a priority, even though they had had negotiated and talked and agreed to do it just a few days ago,” Barrett said after the session ended. “So it’s just another disappointing effort by the House of Delegates.”