Microsoft declined an option to more than double its existing Texas data-center capacity deal with UK AI cloud startup Nscale, in talks reported on November 5, a move that could have been worth tens of billions of dollars to Nscale as it prepares a reported $35 billion IPO. A person familiar with the matter said Microsoft made the call several months ago, before Nscale's September IPO filing, and that the existing Texas contract remains unchanged. Microsoft and Nscale did not immediately comment outside business hours. In its IPO paperwork, Nscale disclosed statements of work with Microsoft valued at up to about $43.8 billion through December 2033, excluding optional extensions, and put its total disclosed contract value at about $103 billion, which the source said the Texas decision does not rewrite. Last year the pair agreed that Nscale would deploy roughly 200,000 Nvidia AI chips across Microsoft-linked sites in Europe and the United States. Power timelines loom large: Microsoft also stepped back from anchoring Nscale's flagship Loughton, Essex campus after power-connection delays pushed supply into the 2030s. The source said Nscale is already talking with several large customers about the remaining Texas capacity, and Reuters earlier reported talks that could supply Anthropic with about $45 billion of AI compute.