Caterpillar Shares Jump After Anthropic Takes Over $3.4 Billion Generator Order

The FT, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Anthropic agreed in late September to take on orders that San Antonio-based OnePWR Solutions had placed with Caterpillar about two years earlier, together with the engineering and construction capability needed to install the machines. Anthropic did not buy OnePWR, and no OnePWR staff moved to the AI company, according to the report. Anthropic had first planned to buy electricity from OnePWR before deciding to take over the equipment itself. Both companies declined to comment to the FT, which described the agreement as the largest known single purchase of power-generation equipment by an AI lab.

The deal is about time as much as capacity. Demand for large generators has run ahead of what factories can build, so units already in Caterpillar's production schedule can arrive years sooner than a new order. By taking over a queue position rather than waiting for grid connections or new equipment, Anthropic gets a faster route to power for the data centres that run its Claude models.

Caterpillar stock was up 6.61% at $595.53 at 12:31 p.m. New York time on Monday, according to GuruFocus. The order is not new demand for the manufacturer. It was already in the backlog, and Anthropic's backing turns an order that needed financing into a funded one. GuruFocus noted that $3.4 billion is roughly a full quarter of Caterpillar's power generation business. Those sales rose 30% to $3.4 billion in the third quarter, driven mainly by turbines and large reciprocating engines for data centres, while total company sales rose 17% to $20.7 billion.

Reports have not said where the generators will be installed, whether they will power data centres directly or back up grid supply, or how much gas they will burn. Running on gas also sits awkwardly with the wind, solar and nuclear supply deals that AI developers have promoted.

The purchase is small next to Anthropic's total spending plans. The company's updated IPO filing puts its compute and infrastructure commitments at $900.9 billion, against nearly $132 billion in cash and short-term investments, according to TechCrunch's review of the document. Anthropic began marketing its share sale this week, offering 825 million shares at $70 to $78 each, and is expected to list on Nasdaq close to November 19.

For Caterpillar, GuruFocus said the next tests are whether other AI labs start placing generator orders directly and whether the company discloses a power generation backlog figure with its next quarterly results.