Anthropic is negotiating a direct 1-gigawatt data center lease to build standalone infrastructure, bypassing cloud provider dependence for model deployment.

Anthropic is in early-stage negotiations with data center developer Stream Data Centers to lease up to 1 gigawatt of compute capacity, according to people familiar with the matter. If finalized, the agreement would represent Anthropic's largest direct lease deal to date and mark a critical step in the company's strategy to reduce its dependence on cloud providers. Anthropic would operate as a direct tenant in Stream Data Centers' projects, deploying tensor processing units co-designed by Broadcom and Google. Stream Data Centers operates across multiple U.S. locations and is majority-owned by Apollo Global Management.

Sources indicate that Anthropic is also discussing having Google provide credit guarantees for the project, though the scope of Google's backstop remains unclear. Anthropic has previously sought such guarantees in other data center lease projects. Additionally, Anthropic could install other AI chips in the facilities, including Nvidia GPUs, as Nvidia continues making substantial investments across multiple data center projects to establish its chips as primary hardware in large-scale frontier AI compute centers.

Data center developers estimate that building 1 gigawatt of compute requires at least $40 billion in capital investment, making this—if finalized—a rare hyperscale direct lease agreement in the AI infrastructure space.

By directly leasing data centers and controlling server hardware, Anthropic can bypass profit-seeking cloud providers and compress compute costs at the source. The company currently leases compute primarily from Amazon Web Services, Google, and SpaceX. Anthropic has already signed smaller direct leases with former bitcoin miners Hut8 and Tera Wulf. Beyond data center leasing, Anthropic has reached a 2-gigawatt chip supply agreement with AMD and signed a $35 billion TPU lease agreement with a special purpose entity established by Apollo and Blackstone. OpenAI is pursuing a similar strategy, as leading AI companies seek more direct control over infrastructure to manage the dual pressures of compute scale and cost structure in frontier model training.

Negotiations with Stream could take months and may still collapse. The exact compute capacity, deal structure, and financial terms—including guarantees Anthropic must provide for the facility lease and financing for chips—remain under discussion. Google's willingness to provide credit guarantees is particularly significant given Anthropic's existing multi-gigawatt TPU supply agreements with Google and Broadcom, suggesting the search giant plays a deeper role in Anthropic's compute expansion than that of supplier alone.

Anthropic is preparing for an initial public offering with a potential valuation between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion—a range that would rank among the largest IPOs in Wall Street history, potentially exceeding SpaceX's June offering. The company has reportedly planned to postpone the IPO to November, a timing adjustment that adds new variables to its subsequent financing and compute expansion plans.