An arms race before its IPO! Anthropic secured $517 billion in computing power in 11 months, but still lags behind OpenAI.

An arms race before its IPO! Anthropic secured $517 billion in computing power in 11 months, but still lags behind OpenAI.

Anthropic has signed a flurry of computing power agreements in the past 11 months, totaling $517 billion. The immediate trigger for this purchasing frenzy was the surge in demand brought about by the explosive growth of its Claude Code and Cowork products this year.

On September 6, according to a comprehensive analysis by The Information of public statements and previous reports, Anthropic has signed agreements since October of last year to lock in at least 14.8 gigawatts of computing power, which can be deployed over the next few years. Combined with the previously secured 1 to 2 gigawatts, this further expands the total capacity.

This figure far exceeds Anthropic's plan disclosed to investors in December 2025—at which time the company stated it would spend $180 billion on server rentals by 2029. Based on currently announced agreements, total spending over the next decade could reach as high as $517 billion, covering cloud capacity leasing, chip procurement, and data center leases.

It is worth noting that Anthropic may have more undisclosed agreements, and the capacity of the signed agreements may not be fully utilized.

Furthermore, although Anthropic's annualized revenue has exceeded $65 billion, surpassing OpenAI's $40 billion, its computing power reserves still lag behind OpenAI's planned target of 30 gigawatts.

Core suppliers: Amazon and Google dominate the market.

Amazon and Google, early partners and investors of Anthropic, remain the largest computing power providers, offering a combined 11 gigawatts of capacity at a cost exceeding $300 billion over the next decade.

Over the past year, Anthropic has also extended its reach to partners who previously had closer ties with OpenAI:

  • Microsoft : Last November, Anthropic announced an agreement with the long-time OpenAI supporter, committing to spend at least $30 billion to lease approximately 1 gigawatt of Microsoft Azure servers (powered by Nvidia chips).
  • SpaceX : In May of this year, Anthropic announced a deal with Musk's SpaceX to pay $1.25 billion per month to rent AI servers until May 2029, with a total potential cost of up to $45 billion.
  • Lambda and Nscale : Just last month, Anthropic signed an $80 billion cloud contract with startup Lambda and UK-based Nscale, securing at least 460 megawatts of capacity over a six-year period.

Building your own data center: betting on long-term control

In addition to leasing, Anthropic is also accelerating the development of its own data centers.

Last November, Anthropic announced plans to invest $50 billion in a joint venture with cloud computing startup Fluidstack to build data centers in Texas and New York, with some facilities already operational this year.

In addition, Anthropic has signed a lease with former Bitcoin miner TeraWulf, who is developing an AI data center in Kentucky that will eventually provide 401 megawatts of computing power.

At the chip level, Anthropic signed an agreement with Google in April to purchase multi-gigawatt tensor processing units (designed by Broadcom); in July, it placed an additional order for 2 gigawatts of AMD chips.

The gap with OpenAI: Revenue leadership, computing power lags behind.

Although Anthropic has caught up in terms of revenue—according to Bloomberg, its annualized revenue has exceeded $65 billion, surpassing OpenAI's revenue of over $40 billion as of July this year—the gap between the two in terms of computing power remains significant.

In April, OpenAI told investors that it plans to have 30 gigawatts of computing power by 2030. According to sources familiar with the matter, OpenAI last month projected computing power spending of approximately $750 billion by 2030, up from its previous forecast of $665 billion.

OpenAI has signed numerous agreements with companies such as Oracle, Microsoft, and CoreWeave. OpenAI executives stated that these commitments have given the company an advantage over its competitors.

In comparison, Anthropic's announced total computing power plan appears to be far below OpenAI's target level.

Key variables before IPO

Whether computing power can keep up with growth is directly related to Anthropic's profit margin and customer retention.

Anthropic and its CFO, Krishna Rao, have prioritized computing power agreements over the past year. With the IPO prospectus expected to be released in the coming weeks, investors are most eager to see the company's latest disclosures on computing capacity and expenditures.

However, these agreements are not set in stone. Data center construction faces multiple obstacles, including site selection, power grid access, and government approvals, as well as resistance from local governments and component shortages.

Uncertainty also exists at the contractual level. For example, in the agreement between SpaceX and Anthropic, either party can cancel the contract with 90 days' notice.

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