Anthropic and OpenAI hunt for smaller data center deals, sources tell CNBC, in race to deploy AI capacity

Anthropic and OpenAI are hunting for smaller AI data center deals, sources told CNBC, as the race to access the infrastructure needed to deploy workloads ramps up. The two AI labs have both inked huge deals for AI data centers in the past year for facilities of multi-hundred-megawatt and gigawatt capacity, but sources have said those companies are now also looking for compute capacity deals for much smaller deployments of 20-30 MW. Anthropic has sounded out agreements within that range across the U.K. and the Nordics, four people familiar with the conversations, who asked to remain anonymous when discussing private business dealings, told CNBC.