JUST IN: Anthropic strikes $3.4 Billion deal to generate gas-fired power for data centers. Anthropic has moved into the power business, something few AI companies have done so far. In late September it signed a purchase commitment of about $3.4 billion for 1.7 gigawatts of heavy gas generators from OnePWR Solutions, an equipment supplier in San Antonio. The deal also covers the engineering and construction work needed to install them. Anthropic did not buy OnePWR, and none of its staff moved over. The backstory: OnePWR had ordered the generators from Caterpillar about two years ago but never had the money to close the order. Anthropic first looked at becoming a customer. In the end it took over the order itself, so the machines would be reserved for its own use. Few AI labs have disclosed an equipment purchase this big. What does 1.7 gigawatts buy? After derating for reliability and overhead, enough to run several hundred megawatts of IT load around the clock, spread over several sites. These are Caterpillar's large reciprocating engines, the same kind used in other behind the meter projects. By taking over an existing order, Anthropic jumped the queue for equipment that is hard to get, and it now has machines it can send to whichever campus needs power first. This fits what Anthropic already told investors in its IPO filing. Some planned data centers will run on their own natural gas generation instead of waiting for a utility connection. Fuel costs are passed on to Anthropic with no cap. The filing also says competition for power and well supplied sites is intense, clean energy often can't be built fast enough, and a shortage of gas or pipeline capacity can delay a site or kill it. If gas prices rise or supply is disrupted, there is no contractual ceiling on what Anthropic pays. Data center operators have been saying the same for months. In many regions, large new loads wait two to five years to connect to the grid, sometimes longer. Big turbines and generators are backlogged for years. Transformers and switchgear are rationed or late. If you want capacity running in 2027 or 2028, you either wait or build your own generation on site. Anthropic is building, and paying extra to do it. The generator order is small next to Anthropic's other commitments, which also lean on gas. Its reported deal with Nscale covers about 460 megawatts at the Monarch campus in West Virginia over six years, powered by on site gas generators, with the whole site planned for around two gigawatts. Leases with TeraWulf in Kentucky and Riot in Texas add hundreds of megawatts more, on terms of 15 to 20 years. Altogether, the purchase and lease commitments in the updated filings reach hundreds of billions of dollars. What sets the $3.4 billion order apart is that Anthropic is buying it directly instead of renting through a partner. That shifts more risk onto Anthropic. Gas costs flow straight through. If pipelines in a region fill up, or other data centers bid up the same gas, Anthropic pays more. The company has warned it may fail to secure firm gas transport during construction, which could leave a site stranded. It has also promised to cover some consumer electricity price increases caused by its facilities. Those promises make the projects easier for developers to finance, but they leave Anthropic carrying commodity risk that, under a plain cloud rental, would have stayed with the hyperscaler. Anthropic is not alone. Cleanview and other trackers counted more than 100 gigawatts of behind the meter gas projects in development as of October, sharply up from a year earlier. Oracle, Microsoft, Meta and others have signed or are negotiating similar deals. Caterpillar reports strong growth in power generation and is adding capacity for both engines and turbines. The difference is timing. Anthropic is doing this while preparing to go public, and it spells out the risks in its prospectus. Investors will have to value an AI company with uncapped exposure to gas prices, whose growth depends on these generators arriving and running. For years the main bottleneck was GPUs and memory. That shortage hasn't gone away, but the next limit is electricity that can be delivered within 18 to 36 months. Taking over an existing Caterpillar order instead of placing a new one is how Anthropic is dealing with that. The machines are on their way. What's still open is where they'll go, how fast the gas can be contracted, and how big the fuel bill will be once the servers switch on.