AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch: Anthropic Reportedly Buys $3.4B Turbines
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch reports Anthropic is buying $3.4B in natural gas turbines from Caterpillar after years of renting compute.
TL;DR
- AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch reports Anthropic spending $3.4B on Caterpillar natural gas turbines capable of 1.7GW.
- The AI firm had preferred renting compute, including a $1.25B monthly deal with xAI through 2029, according to AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch.
- Power shortages and long turbine backlogs pushed the direct purchase after OnePWR could not finance the order, per AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch.
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch reports that Anthropic is spending $3.4 billion on natural gas turbines from Caterpillar. The deal involves generators originally ordered by equipment supplier OnePWR, according to AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch citing a Financial Times report. Those units could produce up to 1.7 gigawatts.
The AI company has mostly avoided owning physical gear until now, according to AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch. Its May S-1 filing showed it paying xAI $1.25 billion a month through May 2029 for computing power, with plans for more rental deals, per AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch.
Power shortages appear to have changed the math, according to AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch. Turbine backlogs stretch into the early 2030s and grid connections face similar delays, per AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch. OnePWR could not secure financing for the order despite Anthropic’s interest, so the startup went straight to Caterpillar, AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch reports.
Other AI players are moving the same way, according to AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have announced plans for on-site natural gas plants to run data centers. AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch notes this surge is reviving fracking and could push U.S. data-center gas use past Germany and Japan combined by 2035. One analyst expects prices to more than triple in some markets by decade’s end, per AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch.
The Tea
Even the “rent everything” crowd is now locking down its own power plants. That tells you how tight the grid squeeze has become and how much more compute everyone expects to need.