Anthropic in talks with Samsung on custom AI chip, hires chip veterans

What happened

Anthropic is in talks with Samsung Electronics about manufacturing a custom AI chip, according to The Information. The project is still in early stages with no detailed design yet, and the company is still working out what the chip would do and how powerful it needs to be. Anthropic has brought on chip engineers, including Clive Chan, an early member of both Tesla's and OpenAI's custom chip teams, who is expected to build out a dedicated chip group.

Why it matters

Custom chips allow AI companies to build and run infrastructure more cheaply, letting them keep more revenue. OpenAI, AWS, Google, and Meta already run custom silicon tuned for AI workloads. By developing its own chip, Anthropic could reduce dependence on Nvidia and other suppliers, though the company downplayed the effort and said chips from AWS, Google, and Nvidia remain central to its strategy.

What to watch

The project remains in its earliest phase with no detailed design or public roadmap. Anthropic declined to comment on any chip roadmap of its own, so the timeline and final specifications remain unclear.