Anthropic clinches billion-dollar deal for Nvidia chips from Norwegian hydro-powered data center

Anthropic has signed a $10 billion, six-year deal to secure computing capacity from Volta Infra Holdings, a cloud startup founded by former Brookfield managers. The capacity comes from a data center in Tydal, Norway, operated by Bitcoin miner Bitdeer Technologies, which runs on hydroelectric power and will be equipped with Nvidia's latest Vera Rubin chips. Volta will deliver 133 megawatts in two phases by March 2027 and has secured 1 gigawatt of power for data centers. Bitdeer's stock rose 14% after the announcement. Volta, founded in early 2026, raised $300 million in venture capital led by Andreessen Horowitz and Altimeter Capital, with participation from Nvidia and Michael Dell, at a valuation of $2.4 billion, plus a $5 billion financing pool to pre-finance AI chip purchases for customers. Anthropic is expanding its compute capacity with agreements with Google, Broadcom, Amazon, SpaceX, and AMD. Critics warn of growing interdependencies between chip suppliers and AI developers, which could amplify losses if AI demand falls short, noting that Nvidia is both an investor in and supplier to Volta.