Anthropic joins AI’s natural gas frenzy, buys $3.4B worth of turbines

Summary

• Anthropic is spending $3.4 billion on natural gas turbines to address an acute power crunch.
• The company is purchasing Caterpillar generators originally ordered by supplier OnePWR, capable of producing up to 1.7 gigawatts of electricity.
• Anthropic plans to go public this year.
• Historically, the company preferred renting infrastructure, disclosing in a May S-1 filing that it pays SpaceX subsidiary xAI $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for computing power.
• The company expects to enter into additional similar services contracts for renting computing power.
• A backlog for natural gas turbines extends into the early 2030s, with electrical grid connection queues being equally long.
• OnePWR ordered the turbines two years ago but could not secure financing to complete the purchase.
• Anthropic bypassed OnePWR to buy directly from Caterpillar to secure the generating capacity for itself.
• Google, Amazon, Microsoft, \& Meta have announced plans to build massive natural gas power plants for their data centers.
• Increased demand for natural gas equipment has revitalized fracking.
• U.S. data centers could consume more natural gas than Germany \& Japan combined by 2035 if current buildout plans proceed.
• Reliance on natural gas exposes hyperscalers to price fluctuations, with one analyst predicting prices could more than triple by the end of the decade in some markets.