Service levels, hardware failure and fee abatement

What happens to the fees when the GPUs are down?

Availability commitments decide how much revenue a provider can lose in a bad month. Lenders look at the availability target, how long a failure can run before fees stop, and whether credits are capped. Anthropic’s order with Nscale makes service credits the sole monetary remedy, and excuses fees for any suspension Anthropic did not cause, including maintenance.

Randeep Bubbra | Lawyer | Making the next generation of infrastructure financeable · Firm profile · Updated 29 October 2026

What the filed contracts say

Contract	What the filed wording says
CoreWeave / Microsoft MSA	Fees for hardware that has failed for two consecutive business days stop until it is fixed.
CoreWeave / Microsoft MSA	Planned maintenance needs at least five business days' notice; critical maintenance 24 hours.
Sharon AI MSA	99.95% availability on 8,208 NVIDIA B300 GPUs, with 90 days a year when the provider uses reasonable endeavours and credits do not apply.
Anthropic / Nscale GPU order	Service credits are Anthropic’s sole monetary remedy for missed service levels, with carve-outs for termination, suspension, indemnities, force majeure and wilful breach.
Anthropic / Nscale GPU order	The provider may suspend for customer misuse, maintenance on notice, a new law or regulator order, or non-payment.
Anthropic / Nscale GPU order	Anthropic pays nothing for suspended services unless the suspension was for its own misuse.

The filed wording

To the extent the Hardware Failure continues for a period of two (2) consecutive business days, then Customer’s payment obligations pursuant to Section 11(a) for fees payable for Services not performed due to the Hardware Failure shall be canceled with respect to such Services. Payment obligations for such hardware will not recommence until such time that the Hardware Failure is resolved and Services of such hardware are restored.

CoreWeave–Microsoft master services agreement, section 12(c) · CoreWeave S-1, Exhibit 10.23

Liability caps Spares reserve: what's market Put it on an issues list All contract clauses

On the deal pages

Financings by the parties to these contracts

The latest debt raised by the companies that signed them, with the terms and the sources on each deal page.

Financing	Borrower or issuer	Date	Amount
GPU secured loan	Sharon AI	1 October 2026	US$356m
CoreWeave 2.875% convertible senior notes due 2033	CoreWeave	18 September 2026	US$4.2bn
Pre-IPO convertible loan-note subscription (initial minimum)	Nscale	15 September 2026	US$2.1bn
Dell short-term equipment lease payment schedules (aggregate)	Nscale	4 September 2026	US$2.54bn
North Carolina GPU DDTL	Nscale	31 August 2026	US$1.2bn

Method

Each extract is quoted from the contract as filed with the SEC, checked against the filed text when it was added; “…” marks words left out. Filers redact commercial terms, so a [***] or [*] is the filer's, not ours. The summaries describe the wording, not how a court would read it, and each contract's defined terms and other clauses can change the effect. General information drawn from public filings. It is not legal advice on any transaction, and using this page does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Views are personal.