Anthropic Locks In $517 Billion in Compute Ahead of IPO, Still Trails OpenAI

Original title: "Pre-IPO Arms Race! Anthropic Locks In $517 Billion in Compute in 11 Months, Still Trails OpenAI"

Original author: Long Yue, Wall Street CN

Anthropic has signed a flurry of compute agreements over the past 11 months, totaling $517 billion. The direct trigger for this procurement spree is the demand shock from the explosive growth of its Claude Code and Cowork products this year.

On September 6, according to The Information's analysis of public statements and previous reports, since last October, Anthropic has signed agreements locking in at least 14.8 gigawatts of compute capacity that can be called upon over the next few years. Combined with the 1 to 2 gigawatts already secured, the total scale has expanded further.

This figure far exceeds the plan Anthropic disclosed to investors in December 2025, when the company said it would spend $180 billion on server rentals by 2029. Based on the agreements announced so far, total spending over the next decade or so could reach $517 billion, covering cloud capacity leases, chip purchases, and data center leases.

Notably, Anthropic may have additional undisclosed agreements, and not all capacity under signed agreements will necessarily be used.

Moreover, although Anthropic's annualized revenue has surpassed $65 billion, exceeding OpenAI's $40 billion, its compute reserves still lag behind OpenAI's planned 30-gigawatt target.

Core suppliers: Amazon and Google account for the bulk

Anthropic's early partners and investors Amazon and Google remain its largest compute suppliers, together providing 11 gigawatts of capacity at a cost of over $300 billion over the next decade or so.

Over the past year, Anthropic has also extended its reach to partners previously more closely tied to OpenAI:

Microsoft: Last November, Anthropic announced a deal with the long-time OpenAI backer, committing to spend at least $30 billion to rent about 1 gigawatt of Microsoft Azure servers equipped with Nvidia chips.

SpaceX: In May this year, Anthropic announced a contract with Elon Musk's SpaceX, paying $1.25 billion per month to rent AI servers, with the agreement running through May 2029 and a total potential cost of up to $45 billion.

Lambda and Nscale: Just last month, Anthropic signed cloud contracts worth $80 billion with startup Lambda and UK-based Nscale, locking in at least 460 megawatts of capacity for six years.

Building its own data centers: Betting on long-term control

In addition to renting, Anthropic is accelerating its own data center build-out.

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

Anthropic has also signed a lease with former Bitcoin miner TeraWulf, which is developing an AI data center in Kentucky that will ultimately provide 401 megawatts of compute.

On the chip front, Anthropic signed an agreement with Google in April this year to purchase multi-gigawatt-scale tensor processing units designed by Broadcom; in July, it added an order for 2 gigawatts of AMD chips.

The gap with OpenAI: Leading in revenue, lagging in compute

Although Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI in revenue—according to Bloomberg, its annualized revenue has exceeded $65 billion, surpassing OpenAI's more than $40 billion as of July this year—the gap in compute scale remains significant.

OpenAI told investors in April this year that it plans to have 30 gigawatts of compute by 2030. According to people familiar with the matter, OpenAI last month estimated its compute spending before 2030 at about $750 billion, up from a previous forecast of $665 billion.

OpenAI has signed intensive deals with Oracle, Microsoft, CoreWeave, and others. OpenAI executives say these commitments have given the company an edge over competitors.

By comparison, Anthropic's total announced compute plans still appear far below OpenAI's target level.

A key variable before the IPO

Whether compute can keep pace with growth directly affects Anthropic's profitability and customer retention.

Anthropic and its CFO Krishna Rao have made compute agreements a priority over the past year. With the IPO prospectus expected to be made public in the coming weeks, what investors are most eager to see is the company's latest disclosure on compute capacity and spending.

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

There is also uncertainty at the contract level. Take the SpaceX-Anthropic agreement, for example: either party can cancel the contract with 90 days' notice.