Anthropic Buys US$3.4 Billion of Gas Generators for AI Power

US artificial intelligence developer Anthropic has agreed to spend US$3.4 billion on gas generators with a combined capacity of 1.7 gigawatts to power its data centres, according to a Financial Times report on Sunday (Nov 8) that property and infrastructure outlet Bisnow cited on Monday (Nov 9).

The equipment is being bought from OnePWR Solutions, a company based in San Antonio, Texas. Citing the Financial Times, Bisnow said the purchase is the largest single acquisition of power-generation equipment by an AI lab to date.

How the gas generators deal came about

According to Bisnow and tech news site Dataconomy, OnePWR had ordered the generators from Caterpillar about two years ago but needed funding to complete the purchase. Anthropic, which had originally been set to buy electricity from OnePWR as a customer, took over the orders instead.

The agreement was struck in September, with Dataconomy putting it in late September. Bisnow and Seeking Alpha said it also covers the engineering and construction work needed to install the generators.

Dataconomy, citing a person familiar with the deal, said Anthropic did not acquire OnePWR and that no OnePWR employees moved to Anthropic. The planned location of the generators was not disclosed. Bisnow described OnePWR as a provider of turnkey “behind-the-meter” power systems.

Power needs and IPO plans

The purchase comes as Anthropic prepares to go public. Bisnow said the company filed its listing plans on Oct 26 and that the offering could come as soon as this month. The listing is expected to value Anthropic at US$1.5 trillion, although one major investor told The Wall Street Journal the figure could be closer to US$1 trillion, Bisnow reported.

Bisnow put Anthropic’s disclosed computing commitments through 2045 at nearly US$900 billion, while Dataconomy said an amended IPO filing showed US$895 billion in commitments, almost all of it for compute and infrastructure.

Bisnow noted that access to energy has long limited data centre development, a constraint it said has grown since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. It added that gas-fired systems are becoming more popular as a fast, self-operated power source, despite data centre operators’ emissions targets.

Dataconomy noted that Elon Musk’s xAI faces a lawsuit over gas turbines at its site in Memphis.

Rival OpenAI has delayed its own IPO until next year and, according to Bloomberg as cited by Bisnow, is instead seeking to raise US$20 billion at a valuation of US$1.25 trillion.

What’s next

Anthropic and OnePWR declined to comment, Dataconomy reported, while Bisnow said neither company immediately responded to its requests on Monday morning. Bisnow said power from the generators is expected to come online in the near term and over the next two years.

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