JPMorgan heads a $5 billion debt arrangement for the expansion of Volta's AI data center.

      JPMorgan has started reaching out to lenders for a $5 billion debt package intended to finance the AI data centre expansion of Volta Infra Holdings. This comes a few weeks after the newly established company, which has been operational for seven months, secured $300 million at a valuation of $2.4 billion. Its initial significant site is a 121-megawatt campus in Norway, leased from the bitcoin miner Bitdeer.

      The bank is seeking a $5 billion debt package, which would be used for building AI data centres for Volta Infra Holdings, as per sources familiar with the financing. However, neither company has provided any comments.

      Volta, which was founded earlier this year by Ricard Boada and Sofia Gumuzio, both former executives from Brookfield’s infrastructure division, operates from London, Palo Alto, and New York. The company has been moving quickly; it raised $300 million at a $2.4 billion valuation this month, with support from Andreessen Horowitz, Altimeter, Nvidia, and Michael Dell.

      Notably, Anthropic, Volta's primary customer, signed a significant six-year, $10 billion deal for computing capacity just days after the company exited stealth mode.

      The data centre itself is located in Norway. Volta is utilizing Bitdeer's Tydal campus, which boasts 121 megawatts of IT capacity powered by local hydropower and features dual grid connections along with Nvidia’s Vera Rubin systems.

      The lease details present an intriguing aspect. Bitdeer estimates that the arrangement could yield approximately $4.7 billion in contracted revenue over 16 years, extendable to around $8 billion, with the tenant possessing a termination right after ten years.

      However, this creates a discrepancy in the numbers. A six-year customer contract lies beneath an obligation from which Volta cannot withdraw for a decade, raising questions that lenders are likely to ask first.

      Additionally, there is another $5 billion involved in this narrative. Volta announced a non-dilutive infrastructure program of the same amount with Spanish asset manager Azora in early August, though it remains unclear whether JPMorgan is involved in that arrangement or is pursuing a separate one.

      Leasing space from a bitcoin miner has become quite commonplace. Anthropic has also finalized a separate $9.1 billion, 20-year agreement with Riot Platforms, another miner that has transitioned its focus to AI.

      The scale of financing in the sector is substantial. Companies have borrowed around $600 billion for data centres and AI initiatives since last year, with Bloomberg predicting that developments in this area will cost nearly $5 trillion by 2030.

      Europe continues to provide the real estate but is not retaining the tenants. Anthropic’s $45 billion Nscale deal relocates a London company’s flagship to West Virginia, while this project operates an American lab’s models powered by Norwegian water.

      Thus, the first facility constructed with this funding will be located in a Norwegian valley. It will belong to a bitcoin miner, be leased by a relatively young startup, and serve a company based in San Francisco.