Anthropic and OpenAI start shopping in 20–30 MW slices

Four people familiar with the talks told CNBC that Anthropic has sounded out 20–30 MW deals across the U.K. and the Nordics. OpenAI is exploring that size in the Nordics, two of the sources said.

Anthropic’s Nscale contract covers around 460 MW in West Virginia; OpenAI passed its 10 GW Stargate commitment in April.

Small blocks buy speed. Training needs many chips working closely together, while many inference workloads serve separate requests across smaller clusters. A few megawatts at an already powered site can be more practical than waiting for one large block, says Structure Research’s Jabez Tan.

An OpenAI spokesperson said the lab doesn’t comment on specific commercial discussions; Anthropic didn’t comment. In our view the 20–30 MW range is the telling number, given Europe is short on land and power.