Anthropic says energy difficulties could slow down the AI buildout

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Anthropic warned potential investors in its landmark public offering that it expects its already-high energy costs to get higher, and that delays in securing access could slow down the AI buildout.
In its IPO prospectus filed on Monday, the tech giant revealed it is on the hook for about $400 billion in chip purchases and data center leases, and lost $81 billion in the first half of this year. Energy in particular is raised repeatedly in the document as a risk: Negotiations with third parties, delays, cost overruns, and growing requirements for AI companies to pay for grid upgrades even if they don’t use them directly are all liable to increase the firm’s operating costs, the filing said, adding that because of how the company’s contracts are structured, “we may bear these costs even if the underlying [power] capacity is delayed or never realized.” Rising temperatures and heightened risk from wildfires due to climate change also pose physical threats to the company’s infrastructure, it warned.

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