Anthropic is spending $3.4 billion on Caterpillar natural-gas generators capable of producing up to 1.7 gigawatts, according to Financial Times reporting cited by TechCrunch. The purchase is a notable shift for a company that has generally rented computing infrastructure rather than owned physical capacity.
The equipment supplier OnePWR had ordered the turbines but reportedly could not secure financing to complete the purchase. Anthropic initially planned to buy them through OnePWR and then went directly to Caterpillar. Neither the intended sites nor a schedule for bringing the generators online was detailed in the report.
AI developers are competing not only for chips but also for electricity. New gas-turbine orders face backlogs into the early 2030s, while connections to public grids can also take years. Owning generation equipment can reserve capacity that might otherwise go to a competitor.
The decision creates exposure to fuel prices and emissions at the same time that data-center power demand is rising. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have also announced on-site gas generation plans. The turbines could ease an immediate infrastructure constraint, but their economics depend on deployment costs and future gas prices, while their climate impact complicates industry commitments to cleaner energy.