Anthropic to Invest $10 Billion in Computing Power, Signing Six-Year Data Center Deal

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic is reportedly doubling down on its AI infrastructure investments. According to sources, Anthropic has signed a $10 billion, six-year compute procurement agreement with AI infrastructure startup Volta Infra Holdings, securing access to data center resources managed by Volta to meet the rapidly growing demand for generative AI services and further escalate the global AI computing race.

Sources indicate that Anthropic will utilize data center resources managed by Volta. Volta recently announced it had signed a $10 billion partnership agreement with an unnamed AI lab and would collaborate with Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR-US) to provide computing power through a data center in Norway, with the partnership lasting six years.

Volta stated that the Norwegian data center will deploy NVIDIA's (NVDA-US) latest Vera Rubin AI chips, achieving a total computing capacity of 133 megawatts (MW). While Volta CEO Ricard Boada did not disclose the client's identity, market sources confirm the contracting party is Anthropic. Encouraged by the positive news, Bitdeer's stock price surged over 13% during Tuesday's trading session.

As more enterprises and consumers adopt Anthropic's AI tools for programming, content generation, and enterprise applications, the company has been actively expanding its computing resources over recent months.

Previously, Anthropic had already established compute partnerships with SpaceX, AMD (AMD-US), and Akamai Technologies (AKAM-US). Market reports also suggest the company is in talks with Meta Platforms (META-US) to lease data center resources.

Earlier this year, Anthropic completed a funding round valuing the company at $65 billion, securing substantial capital for AI model development and infrastructure construction. Additionally, market sources indicate that the company is evaluating a potential U.S. IPO as early as this year to raise further funds through public markets.

Volta was founded in January by former senior executives of Brookfield Asset Management and primarily offers AI computing power leasing and financing solutions for high-cost AI chip procurement. The company simultaneously announced on Tuesday the completion of a $300 million venture capital funding round, bringing its current valuation to $2.4 billion.

As a key partner in this collaboration, Bitdeer is one of the Bitcoin miners actively transitioning into AI infrastructure in recent years. With Bitcoin prices under pressure in recent years, many mining companies have begun repurposing data centers previously used for cryptocurrency mining into AI computing centers.

According to Bitdeer's operational update released last month, the company plans to convert parts of its cryptocurrency mining facilities in Texas, Tennessee, and Washington into AI data centers to capture new business opportunities brought by generative AI.

Anthropic and its rival OpenAI are both currently adopting a model that combines partnerships with large tech companies and emerging cloud infrastructure providers to accelerate the construction of AI data centers, supporting the training and inference needs of larger-scale AI models.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously stated that the company's future investments in physical AI infrastructure could reach "trillions of dollars."

Currently, OpenAI is planning to build a new AI data center in Georgia, U.S., with market estimates suggesting the investment could exceed $30 billion. Additionally, there are reports that NVIDIA is negotiating with OpenAI to assist in leasing an AI computing park planned by SoftBank Group in Ohio, with a total investment of $500 billion and computing capacity reaching 10GW.

However, as investments in AI infrastructure continue to grow, market concerns about related financing models are also rising. Over the past year, several investment and financing deals involving OpenAI and Anthropic have sparked discussions due to their "circular financing" characteristics, revealing an increasingly tight network of capital and supply chains among AI developers, chip suppliers, cloud service providers, and infrastructure operators.

Analysts warn that if future AI demand growth falls short of market expectations, such a highly interdependent investment structure could amplify financial risks and potential losses across the entire industry, becoming a significant concern amid the rapid expansion of the AI sector.