Anthropic Signs First Canadian Data-Center Lease at EverWind's Nova Scotia Campus

Anthropic has locked in its first data-center lease in Canada. On October 16, 2026, EverWind announced a long-term lease for the first phase of a new campus at Point Tupper, on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Reuters, citing an Anthropic executive, said the deal is Anthropic’s first data-center agreement in the country. CBC reported that Anthropic later confirmed the lease in its own release.

Who builds, who leases

EverWind will build and own the campus. Anthropic will lease the first phase for a term of at least 20 years, CBC reported. Anthropic said the facility will power Claude models and serve growing demand from Canadian and global customers.

EverWind’s morning release initially described the tenant only as a “leading frontier AI developer.” Anthropic’s name was confirmed later the same day.

Megawatts and timeline

EverWind plans the campus in stages:

• Phase one: 95 megawatts, targeted to come online in late 2027
• A 325 MW expansion targeted for 2028, subject to commercial, technical, and regulatory conditions
• 420 MW at full development

CBC noted that Nova Scotia’s current electrical generating capacity is close to 3,000 MW, which puts the full campus in context as a large single load for the province.

The money and the wind

EverWind said it plans more than $10 billion in private investment: more than $8 billion to develop, construct, own, and finance the campus, plus $2 billion to advance four Nova Scotia onshore wind projects (Bear Lake, Windy Ridge, Kmtnuk, and Upper Afton). Reuters described the package as more than C$10 billion. EverWind also said the project includes several hundred megawatt-hours of battery storage and that it will fund electricity-system costs attributable to the development so those costs are not passed on to Nova Scotia ratepayers. CBC reported that Anthropic joined that ratepayer-protection message.

Local stakes

Data centers remain controversial over power and water use. EverWind pledged a closed-loop cooling design and a community-benefit program valued in the tens of millions of dollars for the initial phase. CBC quoted Nova Scotia’s Ecology Action Centre urging thorough impact analysis before the project moves ahead. Those debates will run alongside the grid studies that Nova Scotia’s Independent Energy System Operator requires before new loads connect.