Anthropic Eyes Own Data Centers With Google’s Financial Backing

TLDR

• Anthropic has signed over a dozen preliminary agreements to lease U.S. data centers totaling more than 1 gigawatt of capacity
• Google is reportedly in talks to financially guarantee Anthropic’s lease payments
• Apollo Global Management and Blackstone are involved in the wider financing structure
• Anthropic filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO earlier this month
• The company’s most recent funding round valued it at $965 billion, ahead of OpenAI

Anthropic is moving to lease and operate its own data centers in the United States. The AI company has signed more than a dozen preliminary agreements covering a combined capacity of over 1 gigawatt.

The news was first reported by The Information, citing sources with direct knowledge of the plans.

To fund the lease payments, Anthropic is reportedly in talks with Google to provide a financial guarantee. Apollo Global Management and Blackstone are also involved in the broader private credit structure.

Neither Google nor Anthropic commented on the specifics. Google told Reuters it does not comment on rumors or speculation.

Google Backs a Direct Competitor

The arrangement highlights the unusual relationship between Google and Anthropic. Google has committed up to $40 billion in investment to Anthropic and co-designs some of the chips Anthropic plans to use in the new facilities.

At the same time, Google’s Gemini AI products compete directly with Anthropic’s Claude across assistants, coding tools, and enterprise software.

A lease guarantee would make that relationship even closer. Google would be responsible for Anthropic’s payments if Anthropic could not meet them.

Anthropic has historically relied on cloud providers, including Google Cloud, for its computing needs. Running its own data centers would give the company more control over costs and reduce its dependence on outside providers.

IPO Plans Take Shape

Anthropic confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO earlier this month. The company did not disclose the size or terms of the offering.

Its most recent funding round, closed in late May, raised $65 billion. That round set a post-money valuation of $965 billion, placing Anthropic ahead of OpenAI by implied market value.

Strong demand for Anthropic’s Claude family of AI models is driving the push to expand infrastructure.

Anthropic also pays $1.25 billion a month for AI compute to SpaceX, through its xAI division — another competitor — showing how intertwined the AI industry has become.

The company is scaling compute capacity while preparing for a public listing, a combination that requires large amounts of capital quickly.

Google’s involvement in the data center financing shows how much the search giant has at stake in Anthropic’s success. A strong Anthropic helps prevent OpenAI from dominating the enterprise AI market.

Both companies have a financial interest in each other succeeding, even as they compete for the same customers.

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