Anthropic is burning gas to feed the AI boom

As it prepares to go public, Anthropic’s S-1 filing makes generative AI’s methane dependency glaringly obvious. In documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, Anthropic acknowledges that data centers are becoming increasingly reliant on “natural gas” — the fossil fuel industry’s marketing term for what is primarily methane — leaving the company’s AI data center buildout vulnerable to rising fuel costs and existing supply chain constraints. And in a possible catch-22, Anthropic admits that rising global temperatures — a symptom of burning fossil fuels — will increase the company’s operating costs. “Competition for access to electrical supply and data center locations with adequate power availability is intense,” Anthropic says, adding that some of its planned data centers rely on electricity generated by natural gas turbines on-site.

First reported by The Verge. This page is a short excerpt; the full text is theirs.