Too popular! Anthropic faces computing power shortage, limiting Claude users' usage during peak hours this week.

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Claude's explosive growth has hit a computing power bottleneck. This week, the AI company quietly tightened usage restrictions on its Claude products, marking the latest sign of the industry's struggle with computing power limitations faced by large model vendors.

Reportedly, Anthropic adjusted the usage rules for Claude’s free, Pro, and Max subscription versions this week. The weekly total limit remains unchanged, but during peak hours—from 5am to 11am Pacific Time—users will reach their usage ceiling more quickly.

Anthropic insiders confirmed the change on social platform X and acknowledged that about 7% of users will now encounter session limits for the first time, with Pro users being especially affected.

According to the Financial Times, Google plans to provide financing support for a Texas data center rented by Anthropic, expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. The arrangement includes construction loans to the data center operator Nexus Data Centers.

Peak throttling affects 7% of users

Thariq Shihipar, an Anthropic employee responsible for Claude, posted on X this week to explain the background and impact of the adjustment. Shihipar wrote:

"We’ve offset some of the pressure through a series of efficiency improvements, but about 7% of users will reach session limits they previously wouldn’t have encountered, especially Pro users."

He also suggested that users with heavy token backend tasks should schedule them during off-peak hours to maximize session quota efficiency.

Shihipar also apologized to users. "I know this is frustrating," he wrote, "We’re continuing to invest to scale efficiently, and I will keep you updated on our progress."

The adjustment does not involve the weekly total usage limit, but the throttling during peak hours effectively reduces available compute power within certain time windows, directly affecting heavy and enterprise users' daily workflows.

AI Agent surge accelerates compute consumption

Anthropic’s computing power crunch is closely related to the rapid proliferation of AI Agent applications.

The rise of open-source AI Agent tools like OpenClaw allows users to unleash large model capabilities in unprecedented ways. However, the explosive growth of agent applications significantly increases computing consumption. Each automated task chain relies on sustained, intensive token calls to the underlying model.

Meanwhile, Anthropic’s mainstream attention has quickly risen. Since CEO Dario Amodei publicly refused to grant the Pentagon unlimited access to the company’s AI models, Anthropic’s brand exposure has grown significantly. Amodei has previously stated that enterprise business is the company’s core strategic direction.

The rapid expansion of user scale contrasted with relatively limited compute supply constitutes the current contradiction.

Industry-wide challenge: compute expansion lags demand

Computing power shortages are not unique to Anthropic; they are a common challenge for the entire frontier AI industry.

This week, OpenAI announced it would discontinue its once-popular AI video generation app Sora, refocusing limited compute resources on core services—this decision, together with Anthropic’s peak throttling, highlights an overlooked aspect of the current AI arms race: demand growth has far exceeded infrastructure expansion capability.

Notably, in December last year, Dario Amodei expressed reservations at the New York Times DealBook Summit about competitors' large-scale bets on super data center strategies. "I think there is a certain irreducible risk," he said. "I believe some participants aren’t managing that risk properly."

However, the reality of insufficient computing power is mounting pressure on Anthropic itself. Tech giants like Microsoft and Google have invested heavily in AI compute infrastructure. Finding the balance between prudent expansion and meeting demand is Anthropic’s core challenge going forward.

Google plans to finance the Texas data center leased by Anthropic

Google intends to provide construction loan support for a data center project worth more than $5 billion, further deepening its strategic collaboration with AI startup Anthropic.

According to the Financial Times, citing insiders, Google’s financial support is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, including construction loans to the data center operator Nexus Data Centers.

At the same time, multiple banks are competing to provide financing for the first phase of the project before mid-year, with the first phase possibly exceeding $5 billion. Insiders said parent company Alphabet, with its strong credit rating, is likely to help the project secure lower-cost financing.

This project is located in Texas, covers 2,800 acres, and is a crucial part of the Google-Anthropic cooperation framework—Anthropic signed a lease with Nexus earlier this month.

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