Anthropic could spend more than $750 billion on cloud contracts, including deals still under negotiation, while struggling to secure capacity from AWS, Google and Microsoft ahead of a reported November IPO, TechCrunch reported on 20 October 2026. Its account drew on a leaked draft S-1, the registration document prepared for a US stock market listing.
Key points
- The draft filing describes difficulty obtaining enough capacity from Anthropic’s three main cloud providers, which increasingly regard it as a competitor.
- Computing agreements total around $450 billion over seven to 10 years, with most unable to be cancelled.
- Anthropic recorded an $80.7 billion net loss in the first half of 2026, compared with $13 billion a year earlier.
- Bloomberg reported that Nscale is in talks over a separate computing deal worth about $45 billion.
AWS, Google and Microsoft capacity strains
The draft filing describes a change in Anthropic’s dealings with the cloud companies on which it has relied for computing power. AWS, Google and Microsoft increasingly see the Claude developer as a competitor rather than a customer. Anthropic is having trouble securing enough capacity from them.
Anthropic is also leasing its own data centres and working with third-party operators. The company worries that those operators have a “limited operating history”, which could make them less reliable than the large cloud providers, TechCrunch reported. That concern accompanies the company’s move to obtain capacity outside its established supplier relationships.
The more than $750 billion figure describes what Anthropic believes it could spend on cloud contracts. It includes agreements still being negotiated. AI Affairs previously reported the potential computing outlay ahead of the company’s proposed flotation.
Anthropic’s $450 billion computing agreements
Around $450 billion of computing agreements extend over seven to 10 years, and most cannot be cancelled, Anadolu Agency reported, describing the draft prospectus. The agreements are a separate figure from the potential cloud spending that includes deals still under negotiation.
The prospectus lists planned spending of $111 billion on Google Cloud contracts, $110 billion with Amazon Web Services and $31 billion with Microsoft. Those sums attach large, long-term commitments to the same providers from which Anthropic is having difficulty obtaining enough capacity.
Anthropic’s bill for computing capacity and infrastructure came to almost $9 billion in the six months to June, against $2.3 billion a year earlier, Anadolu Agency reported. Spending in that half-year also exceeded the $7.3 billion recorded for all of 2025.
The company posted an $80.7 billion net loss for the first half of 2026, against $13 billion a year earlier. About $72 billion of that loss reflected accounting charges after Anthropic’s share-convertible debt and other financing arrangements were revalued, according to Anadolu Agency.
Nscale discusses a $45 billion Anthropic deal
Nscale is in talks with Anthropic over a computing agreement worth about $45 billion, Bloomberg reported in an account carried by Investing.com. The proposed deal covers a second building at Nscale’s Monarch data centre campus in West Virginia, with 460 megawatts of computing capacity using Nvidia’s Vera Rubin chips. Discussions are continuing and the terms could change.
Nscale, a data centre developer backed by Nvidia, is pursuing a roughly $30 billion valuation for its planned IPO, according to the same account. AI Affairs previously reported the proposed Nscale agreement as talks rather than a completed contract.
Anthropic reported $16.3 billion in revenue for the first half of 2026, with two customers accounting for about a fifth of sales. The concentration places a substantial portion of those sales with a small number of buyers as the company takes on long-term computing commitments.
Anthropic told prospective investors that third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion, up 45% from the previous quarter, TechCrunch reported. AI Affairs reported those figures from the investor meeting.
