Anthropic Is Worth $965 Billion and Still Needs Google to Pay Its Rent

Anthropic raised money at a $965 billion valuation last month and is heading toward a public stock listing. But to build the data centers, it needs to stay competitive. The AI company is reportedly asking Google, its most direct rival, to guarantee the bills.

Anthropic has signed more than a dozen preliminary agreements to lease US data centers with a combined capacity above 1 gigawatt. Executives at the company have also reportedly discussed an arrangement where Google would financially backstop those lease payments, with Apollo Global Management and Blackstone providing private credit as part of the wider financing structure.

Google Competes With Anthropic, and Also Funds It

Google’s Gemini competes directly with Anthropic’s Claude across AI assistants, coding tools, and enterprise software. Yet Google has committed up to $40 billion to Anthropic and co-designs some of the server chips the company plans to use in its new facilities.

🚨 @AnthropicAI pursues 1+ GW of data center leases, seeks Google guarantee on payments 🚨⚡ 12+ preliminary lease agreements signed — combined U.S. data center capacity exceeding 1 GW, per The Information citing sources with direct knowledge⚡ @Google financial guarantee… pic.twitter.com/8HYw8ca3aE

— McNallie Money (@McnallieM) June 11, 2026

The reported lease guarantee would deepen that entanglement: Google would stand behind Anthropic’s payments if the company cannot meet them.

Neither company addressed the specifics publicly. Google told Reuters it does not comment on rumors or speculation. Also, Anthropic did not respond to requests for comment.

Anthropic Data Centers and the IPO Push

Anthropic has historically relied on cloud providers, including Google Cloud, for compute capacity. Leasing and running its own facilities gives the company more control over costs and performance as it scales, and cuts its dependence on the same providers it competes with directly.

Anthropic confidentially filed for a US IPO earlier this month without disclosing the size or terms of the offering. Its most recent funding round, closed in late May, raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion, placing it ahead of OpenAI by implied market value.

The AI Race Runs on Mutual Dependence

Google’s interest in Anthropic’s success extends well beyond equity returns. A strong Anthropic keeps OpenAI from monopolizing the enterprise AI market and validates Google’s own AI infrastructure bets.

Meanwhile, Anthropic pays SpaceX, another competitor through xAI, $1.25 billion a month for AI compute, and these companies are both heading for IPOs. It is evidence of two more AI companies racing each other for the same institutional capital while being in business with each other.