The developer of Claude — the company Anthropic — has concluded a large-scale agreement with the American company OnePWR Solutions for the acquisition of rights to the supply of Caterpillar gas generators with a total capacity of 1.7 GW. The value of the deal is estimated at $3.4 billion and includes not only the equipment itself, but also a full scope of engineering and construction work.
Generator deliveries will be carried out in stages over two years. A deal of this kind represents one of the largest contracts in the segment of power supply for AI infrastructure and reflects the growing competition for access to electrical capacity.
Why this matters for the AI market
The rapid growth in computing needs for training and inference of large language models has turned electricity into one of the key scarce resources of the industry. Data centers serving AI workloads consume gigawatts of power, while connecting to traditional power grids is associated with multi-year queues and bureaucratic procedures.
Against this backdrop, major players are increasingly turning to autonomous solutions — building their own generating capacity and concluding direct contracts with equipment manufacturers. Anthropic's deal demonstrates a strategy of vertical integration in energy: the company is effectively insuring its computing capacity against the risks of outages and limitations of centralized power supply.
Of particular note is the choice of gas generation as the primary source. Despite the global decarbonization trend, natural gas remains the most practical solution for the rapid deployment of large capacities — renewable sources are not yet capable of providing a stable baseload in the required volumes.
Cryptalist analysis: Anthropic's $3.4 billion deal signals a structural shift in the economics of AI: competition for computing resources is transforming into competition for energy. Given the multi-year queues for the production of generator equipment, companies that conclude such contracts today gain a strategic advantage over a 3–5 year horizon. The market for data center power supply is becoming an independent investment segment with high capital intensity and long-term contracts.