Anthropic joins AI’s natural gas frenzy, buys $3.4B worth of turbines

Anthropic, an AI company planning to go public, has purchased $3.4 billion worth of natural gas turbines from Caterpillar, a deal that may lead to buyer's remorse due to the uncertain market for power and potential long queues to connect to the electrical grid. The turbines can produce up to 1.7 gigawatts of electricity, and the purchase is a departure from Anthropic's usual practice of renting computing power rather than buying infrastructure. The company had previously signed a $1.25 billion per month deal with SpaceX's xAI to use its computing power through 2029, but may have been forced to buy the turbines due to the growing uncertainty in the power market. The natural gas equipment market has been growing, with companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta building large power plants to power their data centers on site. The deal was originally intended for equipment supplier OnePWR, but Anthropic went directly to Caterpillar after OnePWR was unable to secure financing.