GoKawiilAnthropic and OpenAI seek 20-30MW data centers to bridge gigawatt build delays
Anthropic and OpenAI are pursuing deals for smaller, existing data center facilities of roughly 20-30 MW in the UK, Nordic countries, and the US, according to a CNBC report citing sources familiar with the talks. These smaller deployments would supplement the companies' massive gigawatt-scale infrastructure commitments, including Anthropic's $45 billion Nscale deal and OpenAI's Stargate project, which are still years from completion.
The move reveals a gap between AI companies' soaring compute ambitions and the slow pace of building gigawatt-scale campuses, which require years of grid upgrades, land acquisition, and cooling infrastructure. By securing smaller, already-operational facilities, Anthropic and OpenAI can keep scaling model training and inference in the near term without waiting for their flagship megaprojects to finish.
- Anthropic and OpenAI are seeking 20-30 MW data center deals in the UK, Nordics, and US.
- Gigawatt-scale projects like Stargate and Anthropic's Nscale deal remain years from full operation.
- Smaller facilities offer a faster stopgap to meet immediate AI compute demand.
Source: tomshardware.com — Etiido Uko, 2026-09-22
Published there as: “OpenAI and Anthropic scramble for smaller data centers as massive gigawatt projects lag”
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