Anthropic strikes $3.4 billion deal for gas-fired generators to power its data centers, FT reports

Anthropic has struck a deal worth about $3.4 billion to secure natural gas-fired generators for its data centers, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, November 8. The report was carried by Reuters, CNBC and Bloomberg.

The terms

According to the FT, Anthropic bought commitments for 1.7 gigawatts of heavy-duty generators in late September from OnePWR Solutions, an equipment supplier based in San Antonio, Texas. Anthropic did not acquire OnePWR itself, and none of the supplier's employees transferred to the AI company, but the deal included the engineering and construction capabilities needed to install the generators, the newspaper reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg reported that Anthropic had initially planned to buy power from OnePWR before instead taking over its generator orders with Caterpillar. The FT described the transaction as the largest known single purchase of power-generation equipment by an AI lab.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report, and Anthropic and OnePWR did not respond to requests for comment.

A race for scarce power equipment

Strong demand for Anthropic's Claude family of models has pushed the company to secure additional computing and power capacity. Reuters reported in September that Anthropic expects to spend more than $500 billion over the next 10 years building AI infrastructure. Bloomberg noted that the company recently said it intends to spend more than $895 billion in the years ahead, most of it related to computing power and infrastructure.

Bloomberg characterized the purchase as the latest sign of AI labs pushing deeper into the energy industry and bypassing intermediaries in the race to secure scarce power equipment. It also reflects a push by Anthropic for greater control over the infrastructure behind its AI operations, after relying heavily on partners for power, chips, data centers and land.

Sources: CNBC / Reuters, Bloomberg, CNA / Reuters