Anthropic正在燃烧气体，以养活AI的繁荣

Anthropic的S-1文件在准备公开之际

Anthropic正在燃烧气体，以养活AI的繁荣

Anthropic明确显示数据中心会运行在天然气上

“进入电力供应和数据中心地点的电源充沛。”

Anthropic星期一向美国证券交易委员会提交的文件承认，数据中心越来越依赖“天然气 ” — — 化石燃料工业主要用于甲烷的营销术语 — — 使得公司的AI数据中心的建设容易受到不断上升的燃料成本和现有的供应链限制的影响。 Anthropic也承认全球气温升高

Anthropic 称)补充说，其计划中的一些数据中心依赖于现场天然气涡轮机产生的电力。 Anthropic从超规模机租借能力，但去年宣布计划500亿美元扩大德克萨斯州和纽约的数据中心。

美国作为全球数据中心的中心，正计划建设比十年来更多的化石燃料发电能力，因为数据中心需要更多的电力。 唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)政府试图在破坏可再生能源项目的同时将监管环境倾斜为化石燃料，而特朗普·声称是24小时向数据中心供电的更重要的能源，而不是断断续续发电的太阳能和风力农场。

现在，燃气涡轮机的短缺正在减缓数据中心的建设。 一些开发商正在现场安装燃气发动机，以此避免长时间的等待时间与电网连接。 开发者也转向在这些场地采用更简单的涡轮技术，因为他们面临着涡轮制造商的积压，使现场发电效率降低，污染增加。

数据中心的电力需求可能在未来五年中抹去数十年空气质量的提高，最近一项以德克萨斯州为基础的研究发现，烟尘含量上升、烟雾形成污染物和地球加热二氧化碳。 Anthropic的S-1指出气候变化是其底线的风险。 随着温度的上升，它必须支付更多的水电费用，用于数据中心的冷却服务器。

然而，Anthropic预计超标器和云服务供应商会加紧竞争天然气和管道能力，并急于建立自己的数据中心。 指出公司说，“这种竞争会提高天然气的价格。

天然气占美国发电量的40%。 而美国人已经感受到了成本上升带来的痛苦，因为公用设施为提升能源基础设施和满足不断增长的电力需求而奔波。

愤怒的居民成功封锁了美国各地数十个数据中心。 Anthropic承认气球功用账单的光谱足以干扰数据中心项目。 “如果认为我们确保电力供应的努力会影响到其他公用事业客户和更广泛的电网，监管者可能会强加条件、备用费或其他旨在处理这种影响的要求，”

如果监管机构推动数据中心开发者承担更多新能源基础设施的成本，那么也可以提高运行成本的Anthropic 称。 如果没有安全的天然气供应和输送燃料的管道，称公司，它可能需要完全推迟或放弃计划中的数据中心项目。

最终，这些挑战会阻碍Anthropic的增长：

任何未能确保获得足够的电力、任何限制电力供应的法律、规章或其他行政行动或变化，或能源或合规成本的任何大幅增加，都可能对我们的成本结构产生不利影响，并限制我们扩大计算基础设施、开发和部署我们的模型以及为我们的客户服务的能力。

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As it prepares to go public, Anthropic’s S-1 filing makes generative AI’s methane dependency glaringly obvious.

Anthropic is burning gas to feed the AI boom

Anthropic is clear that data centers will run on gas, to the company’s own detriment.

“Competition for access to electrical supply and data center locations with adequate power availability is intense.”

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. Anthropic leases capacity from hyperscalers, but it announced a $50 billion dollar plan last year to expand data centers in Texas and New York.

The US, the epicenter for data centers globally, is planning to build more fossil fuel generation capacity than it has in a decade as data centers demand more electricity. Donald Trump’s administration has sought to kill renewable energy projects while tilting the regulatory landscape in favor of fossil fuels, which Trump claims is a more important energy source for powering data centers around the clock than solar and wind farms that generate power intermittently.

Now, a shortage of gas turbines is slowing data center construction. Some developers are installing gas engines on-site as a way to avoid long wait times to connect to power grids. Developers are also turning to more simple turbine technology at these sites as they face backlogs from turbine manufacturers, making on-site power generation less efficient and more polluting as a result.

Data center electricity demand could wipe out decades of gains in air quality over the next five years, one recent Texas-based study found — raising levels of soot, smog-forming pollutants, and planet-heating carbon dioxide. Even as data centers create more greenhouse gas pollution, Anthropic’s S-1 points to climate change as a risk to its bottom line. It will have to pay more for electricity and water to cool servers at data centers as temperatures climb.

Nevertheless, Anthropic expects increased competition for natural gas and pipeline capacity from hyperscalers and cloud service providers rushing to build their own data centers. “This competition could drive up the price of natural gas,” the company notes.

Gas makes up the biggest chunk of the US electricity mix, 40 percent of the nation’s power generation. And Americans are already feeling the pain of rising costs as utilities scramble to upgrade energy infrastructure and meet rising power demand.

Pissed-off residents have successfully blocked dozens of proposed data centers across the US. Anthropic acknowledges that the specter of ballooning utility bills is enough to interfere with a data center project. “If our efforts to secure electrical power are perceived to affect other utility customers and the broader grid, regulators may impose conditions, standby charges, or other requirements intended to address such impacts,” it says.

If regulators push data center developers to shoulder more of the costs for new energy infrastructure, Anthropic says that could also raise its operating costs. And without a secure gas supply and the pipelines to transport the fuel, the company says, it might need to delay or abandon planned data center projects altogether.

Ultimately, these challenges could stunt Anthropic’s growth:

Any failure to secure access to adequate electrical power, any legal, regulatory, or other administrative action or change limiting the availability of electricity, or any significant increase in energy or compliance costs, could adversely affect our cost structure and limit our ability to scale our compute infrastructure, develop and deploy our models, and service our customers.

Auto-fetched and translated by AI Atlas. All rights belong to the original author.