Anthropic and OpenAI Seek Smaller Data Center Deals Amid Growing Demand for AI Infrastructure
Anthropic and OpenAI are actively pursuing smaller data center deals in the U.S., UK, and Nordics to expand their AI infrastructure capacity. While both companies have secured large-scale agreements over the past year—such as Anthropic's $45 billion deal with Nscale and OpenAI’s multi-gigawatt projects—they now aim for more flexible 20-30 MW deployments that can be brought online faster. Analysts note these smaller deals offer quicker access to usable capacity, which is crucial amid rising demand for AI services. The shift in strategy reflects a broader trend as the industry moves from training large models—requiring massive compute power—to deploying them via inference workloads, which require less intensive hardware setups. This transition allows companies like Anthropic and OpenAI to distribute their infrastructure across multiple smaller sites rather than relying on single, large facilities that face regulatory or community resistance. Both firms are diversifying their compute portfolios by engaging with a range of partners based on performance, reliability, timing, and cost considerations.
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Topics: Anthropic Artificial Intelligence Data Center Deals Infrastructure Expansion OpenAI