Anthropic reportedly paid $3.4 billion to own gas generators instead of buying their power

Anthropic has reportedly spent about $3.4 billion to own a fleet of gas-fired power generators, rather than buy electricity from them. The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the AI lab agreed in late September to take over 1.7 gigawatts of generator orders from OnePWR Solutions, a power developer in San Antonio.

For investors sizing up Anthropic's planned stock listing, the shift matters more than the price tag. A company that buys power pays a monthly bill. A company that owns generators also carries the fuel price, the construction schedule and the permits.

Neither company has commented. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report. The FT called it the largest known single purchase of power equipment by an AI company.

What Anthropic actually bought

OnePWR ordered the machines from Caterpillar about two years ago but needed money to finish paying for them, according to the FT's account as carried by other outlets. Anthropic had first planned to buy OnePWR's electricity.

Instead, Anthropic took over the orders themselves, plus the engineering and construction capability needed to install them. It did not buy the company, and no OnePWR staff moved over. Where the generators will be used has not been disclosed.

The strongest outside support comes from the seller's banker. Piper Sandler lists a $3.4 billion sale of OnePWR's power generation platform to "a frontier AI lab," with itself as exclusive adviser. That matches the reported price but does not name the buyer.

One detail does not line up. In February, OnePWR said it had more than 1.2 gigawatts of equipment: more than 400 megawatts in stock and more than 800 megawatts due over the next two years. The FT puts the deal at 1.7 gigawatts. Later orders could explain the gap, but no one has said so.

Why a lab would pay to skip the line

The logic is time. Orders for large gas generators and turbines have outrun factory output, as AI developers try to power data centers faster than utilities can connect them. Taking over a two-year-old order puts Anthropic near the front of a queue that new buyers join at the back.

Caterpillar's results show the squeeze. Its power generation sales rose 30% from a year earlier in the third quarter, driven by data center customers, Utility Dive reported. Its company-wide order backlog nearly doubled, to $78 billion.

The price is not a bargain. $3.4 billion for 1.7 gigawatts is about $2,000 per kilowatt of capacity. An analysis by the No Diligence newsletter set that against government and industry estimates for a finished gas-engine or similar plant, roughly $1,600 to $2,240 per kilowatt. The deal sits near the top of that range, though it includes installation capability, not finished plants.

The move also fits Anthropic's own promises. In February it pledged to pay grid upgrade costs for its data centers and to bring new power generation online rather than buy existing supply. Its October IPO filing warns that some planned sites may rely on dedicated, on-site gas generation, according to a summary by the tech site NeoTeo.

The risks that now sit with Anthropic

Owning instead of renting moves three costs onto Anthropic's books. The first is fuel. NeoTeo's summary says fuel and transport costs passed through to Anthropic may have no cost cap.

The exposure is large. No Diligence estimates that, assuming the generators run at three-quarters of capacity, each $1 rise in the US gas price (quoted per million British thermal units, the standard trading unit) would add about $99 million a year in fuel costs.

The second is execution. Generators need a site, a pipeline connection and air permits, and none have been disclosed. Machines that arrive before a site is ready earn nothing. Elon Musk's xAI has already faced litigation over air permits for gas turbines near Memphis, a reminder that permits can be challenged.

The third is cash. Anthropic's filing shows about $132 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of September, according to Business Model Analyst, against $895 billion in compute and infrastructure commitments. Paying cash avoids borrowing, but the same money also has to buy chips.

The early winners are clear. Caterpillar keeps a large order on its books. OnePWR's owners turned delivery slots they could not finance into a $3.4 billion sale.

The broader signal for investors is that places in the equipment queue are becoming assets that can be bought and sold, and the richest labs can buy their way forward. What to watch next: whether Anthropic confirms the deal in its IPO marketing, names a site, and says when the first generators will run.