Anthropic plans to spend up to $567 billion on compute. Its S-1 reveals plans to set up its own data centers

Anthropic’s IPO filing reads like a confession: the company’s entire future depends on getting enough compute, and that is not a cheap habit. In its 318-page S-1, filed public today, Anthropic says its ability to build and ship frontier models rests on access to “enormous and increasing quantities” of specialized compute. It also warns that the market for that compute is brutal, with competition from some of the biggest, best-funded tech companies on earth.

The price tag is staggering. Anthropic says it has committed between $542 billion and $567 billion for future compute and infrastructure. That includes a $417 billion compute deal signed on Dec. 31, 2025, with various providers, plus another $125 billion to $150 billion in capacity starting later. The contracts begin between 2026 and 2027, and some run for as long as 20 years.

For now, the spending is matched by serious revenue. Anthropic says compute was its biggest operating expense in the second quarter of 2026, at $5.6 billion, while revenue in the same quarter reached $11.6 billion. The company says it made a little more than two dollars for every dollar it spent on compute, and it wants that ratio to keep improving.

But the filing also shows how tangled Anthropic’s setup has become. It relies mainly on Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, while those same companies are also competitors, investors, and customers. Anthropic says they could prioritize their own needs or learn too much about how Anthropic runs. To reduce that dependence, it is pushing a new approach called Anthropic Direct, which means standing up its own data centers through partners.

Under that plan, Anthropic says third parties will secure the land, power, and facilities, then operate the centers while Anthropic leases the compute. The five-year lease payments alone total $125.2 billion, not including interest. Broadcom is its largest infrastructure partner in 2026 at up to $42 billion in potential financing, followed by Google at $20 billion and Amazon at $15 billion. Anthropic says the strategy could bring long-term economic benefits, but it also expects major cash outflows and warns that delays, cost overruns, or power and chip shortages could hurt the business.