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Anthropic Bets Big on Lambda in $3.5B Cloud Deal

In a move that underscores the relentless demand for computing power in the AI race, Anthropic has inked a staggering $3.5 billion cloud computing deal with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by NVIDIA. The agreement, which translates to roughly 235.75 billion yuan, is a clear signal that the company is pulling out all the stops to secure the infrastructure needed to train and run its advanced AI models.

But this isn't your typical cloud contract. The story behind it is a tangled web of partnerships and strategic maneuvering. The data centers at the heart of the deal are located in Nueces County, Texas, and were actually built by Hut8, a company better known for Bitcoin mining than for hosting AI workloads. The twist? The leasing rights to these facilities belong to NVIDIA, which had already locked in the computing power of this Texas campus weeks earlier. In this arrangement, Lambda will directly use the Hut8-built data centers and deploy chips purchased from NVIDIA, thereby providing Anthropic with a steady stream of cloud services—without having to bear the heavy upfront costs of building its own sites. How much Lambda will pay NVIDIA for the privilege remains under wraps.

Anthropic's hunger for computing power is no secret. The company's products have gained significant market traction, and this year it hit a bottleneck: not enough compute to meet demand. To address this, Anthropic has been on a spending spree. Earlier this month, it struck a $4.5 billion computing power leasing agreement with Nscale, another NVIDIA-supported "new cloud" vendor, with plans to activate NVIDIA's Vera Rubin chips by the end of 2027. Meanwhile, Hut8 is also developing other data centers equipped with Google's TPUs for Anthropic, adding a layer of diversity to its hardware ecosystem. Google, for its part, is providing financial guarantees for that project.

But the capital operations in the computing power industry are not without their regulatory hurdles. In July, NVIDIA announced a plan to provide credit support to "new cloud" vendors like Lambda in exchange for a share of their cloud revenue. However, recent reports suggest that NVIDIA has paused some of these transactions due to antitrust concerns. Whether Lambda will have to share its revenue from the Texas site with NVIDIA remains an open question.

As AI giants continue to pour billions into computing infrastructure, the battle for the underlying hardware is heating up. It's no longer just about who has the best algorithms; it's about who can secure the physical and virtual resources to run them. With deals like this, the stakes are higher than ever, and the competition is entering a more complex, deep-level stage.

Key Points

  • Anthropic signs $3.5 billion cloud deal with Lambda to secure computing power for its AI operations.
  • The deal involves a complex structure: data centers built by Hut8, leased by NVIDIA, and used by Lambda.
  • Anthropic is also investing in other partnerships, including a $4.5 billion deal with Nscale and a project with Google TPUs.
  • Regulatory scrutiny is affecting the industry: NVIDIA has paused some credit support transactions due to antitrust concerns.
  • The race for AI infrastructure is intensifying, with major players making massive investments to stay ahead.