Anthropic has reportedly struck a $10 billion, six-year deal for computing power from Volta, an AI cloud startup founded only this year. The capacity will come from a Norwegian data center built with crypto miner Bitdeer and stocked with Nvidia’s newest chips. It’s the latest in Anthropic’s aggressive spree to lock down the compute its Claude models demand.

Key Takeaways

• Anthropic reportedly signed a $10 billion, six-year deal with Volta
• Volta is an Nvidia-backed cloud startup founded in January 2026
• The compute comes from a 133-megawatt data center in Norway
• Crypto miner Bitdeer is Volta’s partner on the facility
• Anthropic declined to comment, and Volta didn’t name the client

What the Deal Involves

The agreement is substantial. Anthropic has reportedly signed a $10 billion deal with AI cloud startup Volta, first reported by Bloomberg, under which Volta will provide cloud compute to the Claude maker over a six-year period.

Volta isn’t going it alone. It has a partner in the deal, Bitdeer, a crypto-mining company that will help develop the data center providing the compute capacity, located in Norway and delivering 133 megawatts.

The hardware is cutting-edge. The facility will be fueled by Nvidia’s Vera Rubin systems, the chipmaker’s state-of-the-art AI architecture, and Volta is part of Nvidia’s Cloud Partner program of providers that use Nvidia GPUs.

The Sourcing Nuance

The two sides framed it carefully. Volta announced Tuesday that it had secured a $10 billion deal with an unnamed AI lab, to be delivered with Bitdeer at the Norway site, without naming the customer it was working with.

Bloomberg connected the dots. Citing people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because the deal isn’t public, Bloomberg identified the AI lab as Anthropic, noting the developer signed a contract to use a data center managed by Volta.

Neither company confirmed it outright. Anthropic declined to comment, and Volta did not respond to a request for comment, so the identification rests on Bloomberg’s sourcing rather than an official announcement.

Who Is Volta

The startup is remarkably new. Volta Infra Holdings was founded in January by former executives from Brookfield Asset Management, and it leases AI capacity while helping clients finance deals for expensive chips.

It’s well-funded already. Volta raised $300 million across a seed round and Series A, valuing it at $2.4 billion, with investors including Azora, Andreessen Horowitz, Altimeter, and Nvidia.

Its ambitions run beyond this deal. Volta also announced a separate $5 billion AI infrastructure program with asset manager Azora, and said the Norway site is the first in a pipeline exceeding one gigawatt of near-term power capacity across North America and Europe.

The Crypto-to-AI Pivot

Bitdeer’s role reflects a broader shift. The Bitcoin miner is among a growing number of crypto companies converting data centers from mining to AI as Bitcoin prices slump, redirecting energy and facilities toward more lucrative AI workloads.

The market noticed. Bitdeer’s stock jumped nearly 10% in premarket trading following reports of the agreement, a sign investors see the AI pivot as a meaningful new revenue path for the miner.

The conversion is already underway. Bitdeer has said it plans to convert some of its crypto sites in Texas, Tennessee, and Washington state to support AI applications, part of an industry-wide repurposing of mining infrastructure.

Anthropic’s Compute Spree

This is one deal among many. Anthropic has been on a cloud-partnership spree, signing infrastructure and computing agreements with SpaceX, AMD, Akamai, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Amazon, and holding talks about renting capacity inside Meta’s data centers.

The spending is backed by huge fundraising. Anthropic raised $65 billion earlier this year to help cover the immense cost of AI development, and is reportedly weighing a US stock-market debut as soon as this year.

The strategy mirrors its rival. Both Anthropic and OpenAI rely on a mix of big tech firms and newer cloud startups for the capacity that powers advanced AI, racing to secure enough compute to keep pace with surging demand.

Why It Matters

The deal shows how fierce the compute race has become. A months-old startup landing a $10 billion contract underscores that demand for AI computing is outstripping what established cloud giants can supply, opening the door for new players.

But it raises familiar concerns. Critics have warned that some AI financing is circular, the same companies keep doing business with one another, so if AI demand falls short, losses could spread fast, though Volta’s CEO insists the projects and payments are real.

The bigger picture is an infrastructure land grab. As Anthropic approaches a possible IPO, its web of compute deals, spanning rockets, crypto miners, and chipmakers, shows just how much physical capacity the AI boom requires, and how far companies will go to secure it.

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