Anthropic signs up to $517B in compute deals 11 months after Amodei warned rivals on risk
Anthropic has signed up to $517 billion in compute contracts since October 2025, locking in at least 14.8 gigawatts on top of the 1-2 it operates. Neither Anthropic, at $65 billion annualized revenue, nor OpenAI, above $40 billion in July, can cover those commitments from revenue — the frontier now runs on capital markets, not cash flow. Amodei warned rivals in early 2026 that they did not understand the risks they were taking; Altman now calls parts of the buildout "unsustainable silliness."
Source: the-decoder.com ↗
Competitors don't really understand the risks they're taking.
Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO (early 2026)
Why this matters
- → Frontier AI labs now run on capital markets, not cash flow—$517B compute deals exceed Anthropic's revenue by 8
- → Amodei's early-2026 warning about reckless risk now applies to Anthropic itself as it races to catch up
- → Technical progress could strand billions in sunk infrastructure costs if breakthroughs plateau
The cautioner becomes the racer