Coatue plans land purchases for data centers, possibly for Anthropic

One of the most influential names in venture capital and hedge funds is pivoting toward physical infrastructure to capitalize on the AI boom. Coatue, already heavily invested in major AI players like Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI, is now moving beyond equity stakes to secure the land needed to power them.

The firm has launched a new initiative called Next Frontier, designed specifically to acquire land near large power sources for data center development, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sources indicate that Next Frontier has already formed a joint venture with Fluidstack, a cloud infrastructure startup that recently secured a massive $50 billion agreement to build data centers for Anthropic. Coatue did not respond to a request for comment on this development.

This move reflects a broader trend reshaping the American landscape. While the United States currently hosts roughly 3,000 data centers, more than 1,500 additional facilities are under construction or in planning stages, according to Pew Research. Most of these new builds are concentrated in rural areas, where land and power access are more readily available.

The resulting land rush is attracting a wide array of investors. Major players like Blackstone are competing alongside high-profile figures such as Kevin O’Leary from “Shark Tank,” all vying to finance data center projects and speculate on real estate near energy grids. For Coatue, Next Frontier represents a strategic bet that owning the ground beneath AI’s compute infrastructure will yield returns as substantial as owning the companies themselves.