In late September, investment banking company Piper Sandler released a short memo saying it had served as a financial advisor for San Antonio-based equipment supplier OnePWR Solutions on its $3.4 billion sale of its power generation platform to a “frontier AI lab.”
Now, the AI lab in question has been revealed. Anthropic is committing $3.4 billion to secure gas-fired power generators for its expanding data center operations—the largest direct investment in power generation equipment by an AI company, according to the Financial Times.
The deal involves 1.7 gigawatts of heavy-duty natural gas generators from OnePWR Solutions, according to the FT. Anthropic agreed to the transaction, taking over generator commitments that OnePWR had previously made with Caterpillar. The arrangement also includes engineering and construction capabilities necessary to install the equipment. The generators are expected to become available in the next two years.
Meanwhile, Anthropic is preparing for its IPO, with the company filing its S-1 with the SEC in September. In the registration statement, Anthropic disclosed approximately $900.9 billion in aggregate committed spending on computing and infrastructure, which would include purchase commitments and lease agreements. Of that amount, about $451.6 billion is expected to be spent before 2030, with most of the remaining commitments extending through 2045. Another $70.7 billion is due within the 12 months following Sep. 30, according to the amended S-1 filed in November.
The company is seeking a $1.3 trillion valuation, selling 825 million shares at a range of $70 to $78 a piece.
The S-1 also outlined key concerns for Anthropic, of which gas-powered data centers were included. The company warned that the dependence on natural gas could put the data center buildout under threat of volatile prices.
“As data center operators increasingly rely on natural gas-fired generation, and because behind-the-meter and on-site arrangements are feasible only in some jurisdictions given the applicable regulatory frameworks, we expect increased competition among users for the same natural gas supply and pipeline capacity in those areas,” the filing read.
Anthropic and OnePWR Solutions did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
Looking for more autonomy
The commitments outlined in Anthropic’s S-1 reflect the company’s effort to secure its own computing capacity needed to develop and operate its AI models. Currently, Anthropic’s infrastructure strategy spans several technology suppliers including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Nvidia, and AMD.
But the S-1 describes a strategy called “Anthropic Direct,” in which the company can lease chips directly and place them in dedicated data centers on its behalf. According to the filing, it allows Anthropic to separate its “commitments for data center capacity” from its “commitments for the compute infrastructure deployed inside them.”
“Because data centers require longer lead times but represent a smaller fraction of total compute costs,” the S-1 reads, “this approach enables us to secure data center capacity early while deferring larger accelerator investments until our specific compute needs are more certain.”
The filing also makes it clear electricity and power are becoming a major constraint on that expansion. Anthropic warned that transformers, turbines, generators, substations, and other electrical equipment can take years to procure, with manufacturers facing higher prices, tariffs and limited production capacity. Alongside those concerns, the company also acknowledged it may need to purchase long-lead-time power generation at prices above market rates.
Anthropic specifically disclosed that some planned data center facilities rely on dedicated natural gas-fired generation, exposing it to fluctuations in fuel lines, pipeline capacity constraints, and disruptions to natural gas supplies.
The AI boom is really a power boom
While Anthropic just agreed to the largest acquisition deal for power generation equipment as of yet, it’s not the only AI-forward company looking to secure its own power generation.
In December 2025, Alphabet—the parent company of Google—acquired energy developer Intersect Power for $4.75 billion. Intersect had been working with Google to colocate data centers with new electricity generation, and the deal gave Google greater control over how quickly it could bring new power generation online.
Elon Musk’s xAI also turned to natural gas turbines to power its Colossus data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi after the existing grid connections couldn’t provide sufficient power.
Meanwhile, Meta has pursued on-site natural gas generation for its Ohio data center campus, working with energy infrastructure company Williams on a project worth approximately $1.6 billion in energy generation equipment, according to the Milken Institute.
And Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy in September 2024 to purchase electricity from the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania, a $16 billion agreement.
Amazon has also pursued data center energy capacity through an agreement with Talen Energy, a nuclear-powered data center campus adjacent to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
“We’re making the largest private sector investment in state history–$20 billion–to bring 1,250 high-skilled jobs and economic benefits to the state, while also collaborating with Talen Energy to help power our infrastructure with carbon-free energy,” AWS Vice President of Global Data Centers Kevin Miller, said in a Talen Energy press release at the time.
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