Anthropic Explores Custom AI Chip Partnership with Samsung
Anthropic is in discussions with Samsung to explore a potential collaboration on a custom AI chip, according to a report from The Information. The talks signal that Anthropic is getting more serious about producing its own chips, an idea first reported by Reuters in April as a response to ongoing chip shortages. However, key details remain undecided, including what the chip will be used for, how it will fit into servers, and how powerful it will be.
The move mirrors a broader trend among AI companies seeking to reduce their dependence on Nvidia, the undisputed leader in the chip industry. Last week, Anthropic's main competitor OpenAI announced a partnership with Broadcom to build a custom inference processor called Jalapeño, which OpenAI claims delivers better performance-per-watt than rival chips. Amazon and Google have also developed their own custom silicon for their respective cloud platforms.
Samsung brings significant manufacturing expertise to any potential deal and is already deeply embedded in the AI chip ecosystem as a major Nvidia partner. The two companies collaborate on chip production and are jointly building an AI chip factory in South Korea. Anthropic emphasizes that a diversified hardware strategy incorporating chips from Google, Amazon, and Nvidia remains central to its compute plans, though it declines to comment further on the Samsung discussions.