Anthropic Plans Gigawatt-Scale Data Center Expansion in Alberta

Anthropic is planning a large-scale data center expansion in Canada, specifically targeting the province of Alberta. The San Francisco-based AI company has issued job postings for a Canadian compute lead to manage the build-out strategy and a community engagement manager based in Alberta. The compute lead is tasked with bringing gigawatts of compute online, overseeing site selection, financing, and government relations.

This expansion aligns with the Government of Alberta's goal to attract $100 billion in data center investments by 2030. The provincial government is actively courting AI firms and encouraging developers to use the region's abundant natural gas for independent power generation. Anthropic's move follows a recent $13-billion investment by Meta Platforms Inc. to build Canada's largest data center northeast of Edmonton.

To support these efforts, Anthropic recently hired Jacob Glick, the former head of Canadian public policy at Amazon. The expansion comes as CEO Dario Amodei emphasizes the need to win back public trust in AI, while polling suggests significant Canadian opposition to the construction of local data centers.