Anthropic has reportedly signed compute contracts worth up to $517 billion over eleven months, securing at least 14.8 gigawatts of power since October 2025. This figure adds to the one to two gigawatts the firm already possessed and plans to build in its own data centers. Total capacity likely remains below OpenAI’s 30-gigawatt target for 2030, though many of these agreements extend well past that date. Neither company can currently fund these commitments from revenue alone. Anthropic’s annualised revenue topped $65 billion according to Bloomberg, while OpenAI reported figures above $40 billion as of July.
The situation highlights a sharp irony after CEO Dario Amodei warned rivals in early 2026 against investing too fast and failing to understand the risks they were taking. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman now echoes similar caution, describing moves by neo-cloud providers as unsustainable silliness that could turn expensive projects into bad bets. Technical progress might eventually validate the heavy spending, but the current financial strain is evident.
- Contracts extend well past 2030
- Revenue cannot yet cover costs
- Both CEOs previously warned against reckless speed
