News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Sundar Pichai Says Alphabet Can't Build AI Capacity Fast Enough, and Anthropic Has Secured 5 Gigawatts of It.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) said something striking on its second-quarter earnings call in July. Even after committing to as much as $205 billion of capital spending this year, the company still can't build artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity as fast as customers want it. "[W]e continue to be supply constrained -- a sign of momentum and rapid adoption," CEO Sundar Pichai said in his remarks on the quarter. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " Yet Alphabet has agreed to hand multi-gigawatt blocks of that scarce capacity to a fast-growing outside customer: Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models. And a look at Alphabet's underlying business performance shows why the company is racing to sell its capacity to major customers like Anthropic -- even if it's scarce. Image source: Alphabet Inc. Selling scarce capacity is a great business Google Cloud, the segment that sells cloud computing to outside customers, grew revenue 82% year over year to $24.8 billion in the second quarter. That was up from 63% growth in the first quarter. The profit is growing even faster than the revenue. Google Cloud's operating income more than tripled year over year, from $2.8 billion to $8.8 billion -- after reaching $6.6 billion in the first quarter. The segment's operating margin came in at about 36%, versus about 21% in the year-ago quarter and 33% in the first quarter of this year. And the contracted work keeps piling up. Pichai said cloud backlog (future revenue from signed contracts) grew to about $514 billion in the second quarter, up from $462 billion at the end of the first quarter. That backlog is now more than four times the revenue Alphabet's entire business produced last quarter. How much of it is Anthropic? Alphabet doesn't break out the number, but the disclosed pieces -- even if they lack financial details -- are big. Last October, Anthropic agreed to expand its use of Google Cloud in a deal giving it access to up to 1 million of Google's tensor processing units (TPUs), the AI chips Google designs in-house, with well over a gigawatt of capacity coming online in 2026. Google Cloud said the agreement was worth tens of billions of dollars. This spring, the relationship got much bigger. In early April, Anthropic secured multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity from Google and chip partner Broadcom, coming online starting in 2027 -- about 5 gigawatts in all, CNBC reported. Anthropic will access that capacity through Broadcom, according to a Broadcom securities filing. Weeks later, Google agreed to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic itself, putting in $10 billion right away with as much as $30 billion more tied to performance milestones.
Donald Trump Jr.'s Firm Leads $1 Billion Funding Round for Polymarket
The new round values the prediction market at $21 billion, up from $15 billion. Mr. Trump's firm, 1789 Capital, will invest around $300 million. Donald Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, is leading a new funding round in Polymarket that values the prediction market at $21 billion, a spokeswoman for 1789 Capital said on Monday. Polymarket plans to raise $1 billion, including around $300 million from 1789 Capital, the spokeswoman, Alexa Henning, said. The investment firm previously invested about $200 million in the prediction market, which is currently valued at about $15 billion. Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi have exploded in popularity over the past year. The platforms allow users to place wagers on the outcome of a wide variety of events, from what the president will say in a speech to who will get married on "Love Is Blind." The Trump family has built up a financial stake in the industry since last year. Donald Trump Jr. joined Kalshi as an adviser last year and received shares in the company worth more than $300,000. He also began advising Polymarket and invested in it via 1789 Capital. At the same time, his father, President Trump, has taken steps to boost the industry. Michael S. Selig, whom the president appointed to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees prediction markets, has spoken enthusiastically about the companies and sued states that tried to regulate them. The president declared on Truth Social that prediction markets would "thrive" under his leadership and said Mr. Selig was "respected by all." Bloomberg earlier reported that 1789 Capital was leading Polymarket's funding round. Many of the companies that 1789 Capital has invested in have large government contracts, while others, like Polymarket, have benefited directly from new Trump policies or rollbacks of existing laws, The New York Times has reported. The investment firm also bought shares in some of the most coveted private companies before many went public, including SpaceX, Anduril, Cerebras and Reflection AI. Two years ago, 1789 Capital managed a few hundred million dollars. It now oversees more than $3 billion. Donald Trump Jr. told The Times this year that he invested as a private citizen and held "no policy position and no role within the administration whatsoever."
Sundar Pichai Says Alphabet Can't Build AI Capacity Fast Enough, and Anthropic Has Secured 5 Gigawatts of It.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) said something striking on its second-quarterearnings callin July. Even after committing to as much as $205 billion of capital spending this year, the company still can't build artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity as fast as customers want it. "[W]e continue to be supply constrained -- a sign of momentum and rapid adoption," CEO Sundar Pichai said in his remarks on the quarter. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " Yet Alphabet has agreed to hand multi-gigawatt blocks of that scarce capacity to a fast-growing outside customer: Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models. And a look at Alphabet's underlying business performance shows why the company is racing to sell its capacity to major customers like Anthropic -- even if it's scarce. Image source: Alphabet Inc. Selling scarce capacity is a great business Google Cloud, the segment that sells cloud computing to outside customers, grew revenue 82% year over year to $24.8 billion in the second quarter. That was up from 63% growth in the first quarter. The profit is growing even faster than the revenue. Google Cloud's operating income more than tripled year over year, from $2.8 billion to $8.8 billion -- after reaching $6.6 billion in the first quarter. The segment's operating margin came in at about 36%, versus about 21% in the year-ago quarter and 33% in the first quarter of this year. And the contracted work keeps piling up. Pichai said cloud backlog (future revenue from signed contracts) grew to about $514 billion in the second quarter, up from $462 billion at the end of the first quarter. That backlog is now more than four times the revenue Alphabet's entire business produced last quarter. How much of it is Anthropic? Alphabet doesn't break out the number, but the disclosed pieces -- even if they lack financial details -- are big. Last October, Anthropic agreed to expand its use of Google Cloud in a deal giving it access to up to 1 million of Google's tensor processing units (TPUs), the AI chips Google designs in-house, with well over a gigawatt of capacity coming online in 2026. Google Cloud said the agreement was worth tens of billions of dollars. This spring, the relationship got much bigger. In early April, Anthropic secured multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity from Google and chip partner Broadcom, coming online starting in 2027 -- about 5 gigawatts in all, CNBC reported. Anthropic will access that capacity through Broadcom, according to a Broadcom securities filing. Weeks later, Google agreed to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic itself, putting in $10 billion right away with as much as $30 billion more tied to performance milestones. Worth noting from that Broadcom filing, though, is that Anthropic's use of the expanded capacity "is dependent on Anthropic's continued commercial success." That is the honest risk in this arrangement. To be fair, Anthropic said in April that its run rate revenue (its recent revenue pace, annualized) had surpassed $30 billion, up from about $9 billion at the end of 2025. Growth like that is extraordinary. But it means a meaningful slice of Alphabet's contracted future rests on one young AI developer growing into its commitments, and Alphabet is now an investor in that developer on top of being its supplier. The build-out still has to be paid for Of course, Alphabet has to build all of this capacity before anyone can rent it. The company raised its 2026 capital expenditures guidance in July to $195 billion to $205 billion. In the second quarter, capital spending of $44.9 billion exceeded the $39.1 billion of cash its operations produced. And the funding has gone well beyond cash on hand. Alphabet collected $49.6 billion from stock sales in June and issued senior notes (a form of debt) for another $20.3 billion of proceeds during the quarter. In other words, the company is financing enormous capacity ahead of the revenue it will carry, and pre-selling chunks of it profitably. What's in it for Alphabet? Probably more of the incredible momentum it's already seeing: Faster cloud revenue growth, a segment margin up from about 21% to about 36% in a year, and a $514 billion pile of signed contracts. So, there's a lot to like here. The supply constraint Pichai described is another way of saying Alphabet has pricing power, and the Anthropic agreements convert that scarcity into contracted revenue years into the future -- something that should help an already thriving cloud business over the long haul. And shares trade near $339 as of this writing, at about 23 times next year's expected earnings, which is arguably a reasonable price for a company growing total revenue by 24% (with an explosive cloud business underneath). Should you buy stock in Alphabet right now? Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and Alphabet wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $440,710!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,335,252!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 978% -- a market-crushing outperformance compared to 213% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks " *Stock Advisor returns as of August 31, 2026. Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
Take-Two says its investigation into the GTA 6 leaker is 'rapidly evolving' as it requests another Discord subpoena
Although GTA VI: An Extended Look premiered only 3 days ago, most fans had already been exposed to several details about GTA VI, courtesy of an online individual known only by the name "CyberLeek". Sometime in August, CyberLeek gained access to a developmental build of GTA VI and began posting details about the game across multiple social media platforms. Upping the ante on the CyberLeek investigation CyberLeek has not shown any activity since GTA VI: An Extended Look's premiere. However, Take-Two is not relenting in its efforts to discern CyberLeek's identity. As reported previously, Take-Two served subpoenas to both Microsoft and Discord, and followed up with subpoena requests for YouTube and X. Ryan Rigney, Discord's marketing director, had stated previously that Discord had not been served with the subpoena yet, but if it arrived, it would "evaluate the validity and scope before responding". According to TorrentFreak's report, Take-Two has filed a new court filing requesting that a second subpoena be sent to Discord. However, the details of this subpoena are private, unlike the previous subpoena, in which Take-Two requested information from Discord about specific usernames and servers. According to Take-Two's filing to seal the subpoena: "Public disclosure of this information could compromise Take-Two's ongoing investigation and even tip off the alleged infringers as to the nature and progress of Take-Two's investigation and information Take-Two has gathered about the infringement, creating a substantial risk that the infringers will delete, destroy, or otherwise conceal evidence of their infringing activities, and/or take further steps to evade identification." A narrowing search for the leaker Take-Two has also withdrawn its subpoena request for YouTube. It had previously been investigating 3 individuals in connection with the leaked videos. Take-Two's legal representative stated, "Take-Two's investigation into the individual(s) responsible for posting infringing content on YouTube, and elsewhere online, has been (and is) evolving rapidly as new information becomes available." "Take-Two has been working to provide the Court with the additional information requested, but as this very dynamic situation has progressed, Take-Two has determined it no longer needs the particular information requested. Thus, Take-Two respectfully withdraws its subpoena request." GTA 6 leaks are being painted as one reason Take-Two's stock took a massive hit this Monday, but analysts are mixed on the effects. Total pre-orders rose 572% compared to the prior 30-day average after GTA's extended look dropped on Netflix earlier last week, leading many to conclude that hype for what is shaping up to be the biggest title this year continues unabated.
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says By Reuters
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Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect This story was originally published August 31, 2026 at 6:50 PM.
Anthropic seals US$35 billion cloud-computing deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda: Bloomberg
ANTHROPIC agreed to a US$35 billion computing deal with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, part of an effort to quickly expand its AI capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter. Infrastructure company Hut 8 is developing the Texas data centre involved in the project, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the agreement, saying that Nvidia would hold the lease on the data centre, which is in Nueces County, Texas. The deal is just the latest AI computing agreement tied to Nvidia, the world's most valuable business and the leading provider of AI chips. The company has been using its financial resources to expand access to computing infrastructure, which, in turn, should increase demand for its technology. Anthropic, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most significant customers for data centre power. The Claude chatbot maker on Aug 26 agreed to spend US$45 billion to rent capacity from Nscale in West Virginia. In recent months, it has also signed cloud deals for US$50 billion with neocloud Fluidstack and US$45 billion with Elon Musk's SpaceX. A representative for Anthropic declined to comment. Nvidia, Lambda and Hut 8 did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lambda is in talks to raise as much as US$3 billion, Bloomberg reported on Aug 25. The company has discussed a valuation of as much as US$12 billion or more, according to people familiar with the talks. Lambda raised more than US$1.5 billion in a November 2025 funding round. The company also reached an agreement with Microsoft in 2025 to deploy AI infrastructure that would be powered by tens of thousands of Nvidia processors. BLOOMBERG
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect This story was originally published August 31, 2026 at 7:50 PM.
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect This story was originally published August 31, 2026 at 8:50 PM.
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, says report - CNBC TV18
Anthropic signed a $35B cloud deal with Lambda, backed by Nvidia, for Claude AI. Nvidia paused a financing initiative for AI cloud companies. Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Nvidia has paused some deals that were part of its new financing initiative that offered credit support to AI cloud companies in exchange for a share of revenue, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The chip giant stepped back from the program last week, the Journal said, adding that it could still revamp the initiative later or fold it into another program. "The new business model ... that opens up compute access to the fast-growing AI ecosystem is still in place and continues to evolve due to high demand," an Nvidia spokesperson said. The reported move comes less than two months after Nvidia announced the program, designed to support financing needs at small AI cloud firms. Nvidia had sought to rent compute capacity back from cloud customers if they were unable to sell it, providing them with a guaranteed buyer and making it easier for the firms to borrow the capital needed to fund their purchases of Nvidia's AI chips. Under the model, Nvidia would earn revenue on the sale of the hardware itself and then a share of its customers' cloud revenues derived from Nvidia-powered capacity. Nvidia said in its earnings call this week that the model had the potential to drive billions in revenue over the medium- to long-term. But investor scrutiny has mounted in recent months as Nvidia pumps money back into the AI ecosystem, stoking fears over its role in so-called circular deals that could artificially inflate demand. The company this month helped arrange $500 billion in financing from major US financial institutions for its customers, and also agreed to guarantee up to $105 billion to help OpenAI lease a massive data centre. The Journal reported that some Nvidia employees expressed concerns to current and potential customers that the initiative could draw antitrust scrutiny, and said there are sensitivities around the extent to which Nvidia can dictate how its customers do business. In the early weeks of the program, Nvidia irked some potential partners with the extent of control it sought, the report said. Nvidia told some cloud providers they could only rent its chips out to approved customers and signalled it preferred the capacity be distributed among multiple smaller firms rather than one large customer, the report added. Under the proposed deals, Nvidia would receive 50% of any revenue cloud providers earned through its chips beyond a certain threshold, the Journal. Also Read: Sun Pharma shares in focus after White House pricing deal wins two-year tariff reprieve
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect This story was originally published August 31, 2026 at 5:50 PM.
Brazilian Counter-Strike pros reportedly paid up to $500 a post to push Polymarket on X
The controversy comes at a moment when online gambling and prediction-style platforms are expanding quickly. According to Proto, professional Counter-Strike players in Brazil are being paid as little as $20 per post to promote Polymarket, and it's drawing fresh criticism over how gambling marketing is showing up inside gaming culture. The backlash has been especially sharp because some of the content reportedly relies on artificial intelligence-generated posts and sensationalized betting talk to grab attention. Here's what to know According to Protos, citing Dust2, Polymarket lists 509 Counter-Strike bets, with some reportedly seeing $1 million to $2 million in volume. Pro players are being paid $20 to $500 per X post to react to news, mention the market, and share wagers. Polymarket is reportedly showing up in everyday conversation around players, match results, and scene drama, not just as a sponsor. One flashpoint involved professional Counter-Strike player Robin Kool. An official Polymarket Counter-Strike account falsely claimed he was in Paris with a Porsche, leading Kool to post on X on Aug. 16, 2026: "so we just lying and creating shit out of thin air, that's how low we're going." He also called sponsored AI-style posts "a f*cking joke." Other users were similarly critical, with one who described the reported $20 rate per tweet as a way for professional players "to completely debase yourself... for a morally bankrupt gambling company." More background The controversy comes at a moment when online gambling and prediction-style platforms are expanding quickly, often through polished social-media marketing that can make betting seem casual, social, and harmless. But that broader boom has also raised concerns about predatory design, aggressive advertising, financial risk, and the ease of placing real-time bets -- especially for younger audiences who may encounter this content in gaming communities. Protos said Polymarket lists 39 countries where it is restricted, reflecting the legal and regulatory complexity surrounding its business. A platform's accessibility, rules, and protections can vary widely depending on where someone lives. The company has also faced scrutiny over how its promotions are presented. The Wall Street Journal reported that Polymarket-linked sponsored posts were largely fake, with a mock version of the site used to display invented bets and up to $900,000 in winnings. If those bets had really been placed, they would have translated to roughly $160,000 in losses. Protos also said that the same reporting found "clippers" -- people who edit and repost influencer footage -- were paid only if 60% of their audience was based in the United States, even though Polymarket is not allowed to operate there. What's being done? Reporting from outlets covering crypto, finance, and esports has brought more visibility to how these promotions work, while players and fans are calling out misleading or low-quality sponsored content in real time. Kool's response is one example of that pushback. Kool said on X: "and all the people sponsored doing AI slop tweets, what a fucking joke" and "genuinely blocking you if i see any of this AI slop on my timeline, this is literal digital cancer." Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
Sundar Pichai Says Alphabet Can't Build AI Capacity Fast Enough, and Anthropic Has Secured 5 Gigawatts of It.
Alphabet (GOOG -2.18%)(GOOGL -2.09%) said something striking on its second-quarter earnings call in July. Even after committing to as much as $205 billion of capital spending this year, the company still can't build artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity as fast as customers want it. "[W]e continue to be supply constrained -- a sign of momentum and rapid adoption," CEO Sundar Pichai said in his remarks on the quarter. Yet Alphabet has agreed to hand multi-gigawatt blocks of that scarce capacity to a fast-growing outside customer: Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models. And a look at Alphabet's underlying business performance shows why the company is racing to sell its capacity to major customers like Anthropic -- even if it's scarce. Selling scarce capacity is a great business Google Cloud, the segment that sells cloud computing to outside customers, grew revenue 82% year over year to $24.8 billion in the second quarter. That was up from 63% growth in the first quarter. The profit is growing even faster than the revenue. Google Cloud's operating income more than tripled year over year, from $2.8 billion to $8.8 billion -- after reaching $6.6 billion in the first quarter. The segment's operating margin came in at about 36%, versus about 21% in the year-ago quarter and 33% in the first quarter of this year. And the contracted work keeps piling up. Pichai said cloud backlog (future revenue from signed contracts) grew to about $514 billion in the second quarter, up from $462 billion at the end of the first quarter. That backlog is now more than four times the revenue Alphabet's entire business produced last quarter. How much of it is Anthropic? Alphabet doesn't break out the number, but the disclosed pieces -- even if they lack financial details -- are big. Last October, Anthropic agreed to expand its use of Google Cloud in a deal giving it access to up to 1 million of Google's tensor processing units (TPUs), the AI chips Google designs in-house, with well over a gigawatt of capacity coming online in 2026. Google Cloud said the agreement was worth tens of billions of dollars. This spring, the relationship got much bigger. In early April, Anthropic secured multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity from Google and chip partner Broadcom, coming online starting in 2027 -- about 5 gigawatts in all, CNBC reported. Anthropic will access that capacity through Broadcom, according to a Broadcom securities filing. Weeks later, Google agreed to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic itself, putting in $10 billion right away with as much as $30 billion more tied to performance milestones. Worth noting from that Broadcom filing, though, is that Anthropic's use of the expanded capacity "is dependent on Anthropic's continued commercial success." That is the honest risk in this arrangement. To be fair, Anthropic said in April that its run rate revenue (its recent revenue pace, annualized) had surpassed $30 billion, up from about $9 billion at the end of 2025. Growth like that is extraordinary. But it means a meaningful slice of Alphabet's contracted future rests on one young AI developer growing into its commitments, and Alphabet is now an investor in that developer on top of being its supplier. The build-out still has to be paid for Of course, Alphabet has to build all of this capacity before anyone can rent it. The company raised its 2026 capital expenditures guidance in July to $195 billion to $205 billion. In the second quarter, capital spending of $44.9 billion exceeded the $39.1 billion of cash its operations produced. And the funding has gone well beyond cash on hand. Alphabet collected $49.6 billion from stock sales in June and issued senior notes (a form of debt) for another $20.3 billion of proceeds during the quarter. In other words, the company is financing enormous capacity ahead of the revenue it will carry, and pre-selling chunks of it profitably. What's in it for Alphabet? Probably more of the incredible momentum it's already seeing: Faster cloud revenue growth, a segment margin up from about 21% to about 36% in a year, and a $514 billion pile of signed contracts. So, there's a lot to like here. The supply constraint Pichai described is another way of saying Alphabet has pricing power, and the Anthropic agreements convert that scarcity into contracted revenue years into the future -- something that should help an already thriving cloud business over the long haul. And shares trade near $339 as of this writing, at about 23 times next year's expected earnings, which is arguably a reasonable price for a company growing total revenue by 24% (with an explosive cloud business underneath).
Anthropic secures 5 gigawatts AI capacity amid Alphabet's infrastructure strain
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has stated that the company is unable to build AI capacity rapidly enough to meet demand, highlighting a significant development in the artificial intelligence sector. In response, Anthropic, the AI lab behind the Claude model family, has secured a substantial 5 gigawatts of capacity, a move that positions it strongly in the race for AI supremacy. This development comes in the wake of Alphabet's announcement of up to $40 billion in investment in Anthropic, underscoring the competitive pressure to secure infrastructure in the AI landscape. The agreement places Anthropic alongside other top-tier AI developers in terms of both financial backing and computational resources, as companies compete to dominate AI benchmarks. Key Takeaways * Sundar Pichai's comments suggest Alphabet's current AI infrastructure is insufficient to meet its goals, emphasizing the competitive nature of the AI industry. * Anthropic's acquisition of 5 gigawatts of capacity appears consistent with scenarios where it enhances its competitive edge in AI development. * Pricing suggests growing confidence in Anthropic's ability to deliver a leading AI model by the end of September 2026. What to Watch Markets will closely observe Anthropic's performance in upcoming AI benchmarks, which could validate its strategic investments. Watch for any announcements or evaluations from dominant AI benchmarks that may indicate Anthropic's standing relative to competitors like Google, Meta, and OpenAI. Additionally, any further strategic moves by Alphabet or its competitors to expand AI capacity could influence market perceptions and pricing in the coming weeks. Get live prediction-market analysis, powered by Vera. Sign up for Vera.
Anthropic seals US$35 billion deal with Nvidia-backed cloud provider Lambda: Bloomberg
ANTHROPIC agreed to a US$35 billion computing deal with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, part of an effort to quickly expand its AI capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter. Infrastructure company Hut 8 is developing the Texas data centre involved in the project, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the agreement, saying that Nvidia would hold the lease on the data centre, which is in Nueces County, Texas. The deal is just the latest AI computing agreement tied to Nvidia, the world's most valuable business and the leading provider of AI chips. The company has been using its financial resources to expand access to computing infrastructure, which, in turn, should increase demand for its technology. Anthropic, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most significant customers for data centre power. The Claude chatbot maker on Aug 26 agreed to spend US$45 billion to rent capacity from Nscale in West Virginia. In recent months, it has also signed cloud deals for US$50 billion with neocloud Fluidstack and US$45 billion with Elon Musk's SpaceX. A representative for Anthropic declined to comment. Nvidia, Lambda and Hut 8 did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lambda is in talks to raise as much as US$3 billion, Bloomberg reported on Aug 25. The company has discussed a valuation of as much as US$12 billion or more, according to people familiar with the talks. Lambda raised more than US$1.5 billion in a November 2025 funding round. The company also reached an agreement with Microsoft in 2025 to deploy AI infrastructure that would be powered by tens of thousands of Nvidia processors. BLOOMBERG
Anthropic signs $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda, source says
Aug 31 (Reuters) - Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to meet growing demand for Anthropic's Claude AI, the source said. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
Anthropic Seals $35 Billion Cloud Deal With Nvidia-Backed Lambda
(Bloomberg) -- Anthropic PBC agreed to a $35 billion computing deal with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia Corp., part of an effort to quickly expand its AI capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter. Most Read from Bloomberg Infrastructure company Hut 8 is developing the Texas data center involved in the project, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the agreement, saying that Nvidia would hold the lease on the data center, which is in Nueces County, Texas. The deal is just the latest AI computing agreement tied to Nvidia, the world's most valuable business and the leading provider of AI chips. The company has been using its financial resources to expand access to computing infrastructure, which, in turn, should increase demand for its technology. Anthropic, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most significant customers for data center power. The Claude chatbot maker last week agreed to spend $45 billion to rent capacity from Nscale in West Virginia. In recent months, it has also signed cloud deals for $50 billion with neocloud Fluidstack Ltd. and $45 billion with Elon Musk's SpaceX. A representative for Anthropic declined to comment. Nvidia, Lambda and Hut 8 didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Lambda is in talks to raise as much as $3 billion, Bloomberg reported last week. The company has discussed a valuation of as much as $12 billion or more, according to people familiar with the talks. Lambda raised more than $1.5 billion in a November funding round. The company also reached an agreement with Microsoft Corp. last year to deploy AI infrastructure that would be powered by tens of thousands of Nvidia processors. --With assistance from Lynn Doan and Ian King. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
