Anthropic was planning to buy electricity from OnePWR Solutions when it decided to take over the Texas power developer’s generator orders instead, the Financial Times reported Sunday. The paper put the deal at about $3.4 billion for 1.7 gigawatts of gas-fired generation equipment and the engineering and construction work needed to install it.
Piper Sandler, which advised OnePWR on the sale, lists a $3.4 billion transaction with an unnamed AI lab in September. The Financial Times identifies that lab as Anthropic and reports that the deal closed in late September. Reuters said it could not independently verify the report and that neither company responded to its requests for comment.
Why an existing order matters
OnePWR had placed the orders with Caterpillar about two years earlier, according to the Financial Times account relayed by The Next Web. Taking over those orders would give Anthropic access to equipment already in the manufacturer’s pipeline. The deal covered installation work and left OnePWR itself outside the purchase, the report said.
OnePWR gave a glimpse of that pipeline in February. It said it had more than 400 megawatts of equipment ready to install and expected to receive more than 800 megawatts over the following two years. Those figures describe what OnePWR said was in stock or on order in February. They give no delivery schedule for the 1.7 gigawatts in the reported September deal.
That 1.7-gigawatt figure describes how much power the generators could supply at a given moment. The amount of electricity Anthropic could actually use depends on which units arrive, when they start running and how often they can operate. The published accounts give no site list or start dates.
What has to arrive alongside the equipment
Anthropic spelled out the fuel problem in its amended filing for an initial public offering on Nov. 2. Some planned data centers rely on gas-fired equipment at the site, the company said. Those facilities need room on nearby pipelines and contracts that secure delivery of gas when they need it. Anthropic said a site could be delayed or abandoned if it cannot arrange a firm supply or get that fuel delivered. It also said its arrangements generally pass fuel costs through to Anthropic without a cap.
That gives a practical reason to look for the locations of the generators. Two sites with the same equipment can have different options for gas delivery. The location also determines which permits the project needs and which homes and businesses are near it. The filing describes those risks across Anthropic’s plans and gives no site details for the OnePWR transaction.
Anthropic said in February it would pay for the grid upgrades its data centers require and work to bring new power generation online to meet their needs. It also said it would work with utilities and outside experts to estimate and cover increases tied to its data centers where new generation is still unavailable. A location and a planned start date would let residents and utilities see how a particular project fits those commitments. A gas supply agreement would help show when the generators could start doing the job Anthropic reportedly bought them for.
