Anthropic commits $200 billion to Google Cloud in massive five-year AI infrastructure deal

Anthropic reportedly agrees to pay Google $200 billion for chips and cloud access - Engadget

We learned earlier this month that Google and Anthropic had inked a deal that would grant the creator of the Claude AI models access to cloud servers and chips. Today, The Information reported that Anthropic has agreed to pay a staggering $200 billion to Google over the next five years. Contracts like this, or Anthropic's other recent multi-billion dollar arrangement with Amazon, now account for a ludicrous amount of money promised to some of the world's largest tech companies. The Information claims that deals with Anthropic and OpenAI are responsible for a revenue backlog of $2 trillion across Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle. These cloud service providers have been early investors in the AI boom, gambling that the startups' need for their resources as they grow would yield lucrative dividends. So far, they've been correct. Previous projections estimated that server costs in 2026 could reach $45 billion for OpenAI and $20 billion for Anthropic. Similar moves have also happened at chipmakers like NVIDIA, which has made its own investments into OpenAI. These expensive circular deals are part of what's driving the current AI boom, but they aren't exactly a sustainable business practice. Data centers put a strain on limited resources and RAM shortages aren't expected to stop bringing prices up and sales down for related gadgets any time soon.

Anthropic commits to spending $200 billion on Google's cloud and chips, the Information reports

May 5 (Reuters) - Anthropic has committed to spend $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years as part of a recent agreement, the Information reported on Tuesday, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. The commitment indicates that the AI startup represents more than 40% of the "revenue backlog" Google disclosed to investors last week, reflecting contractual commitments from its cloud customers, according to the report. Contracts involving Anthropic and OpenAI now account for more than half of the $2 trillion in backlogs at major cloud providers, the U.S. digital news outlet said. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Anthropic and Google did not respond to requests for comment. Google parent Alphabet's shares were up about 2% in extended trading on Tuesday following the report. (Reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Sriraj Kalluvila)