SAN FRANCISCO, California: Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is pursuing plans to lease and operate its own data centers and has discussed obtaining financial support from Google to help secure those agreements, according to a report by The Information.

The publication reported on June 11 that Anthropic, the developer of the Claude Code AI assistant, has signed more than a dozen preliminary agreements to lease data centers in the United States with a combined capacity of more than 1 gigawatt.

Citing sources with direct knowledge of the plans, The Information said Anthropic executives have discussed a potential arrangement under which Google would provide a financial guarantee for lease payments tied to the facilities.

Google, an investor in Anthropic, also co-designs some of the server chips that could be used in the planned data centers, according to the report.

In an emailed response, Google said it does not comment on rumors or speculation. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The reported expansion plans come as demand for Anthropic's Claude family of AI models continues to grow.

The company has signed several major agreements to increase computing capacity as it prepares for a public listing.

Earlier this month, Anthropic said it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the United States. The company did not disclose the size or terms of the proposed offering.

In April, Anthropic said Alphabet planned to invest up to $40 billion in the AI startup.

The company most recently raised capital in late May, securing $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion, according to Reuters. That valuation placed Anthropic ahead of OpenAI.

The Information report suggests Anthropic is taking steps to secure additional infrastructure as competition intensifies among artificial intelligence companies seeking the computing power needed to develop and run increasingly advanced AI models.