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Anthropic Talks Chips With Samsung

5JUL
ANTHROPICSAMSUNG

Anthropic wants out from under the chip shortage. It is in early talks with Samsung on a custom chip using Samsung's 2nm process. It is the fourth major lab now designing its own silicon.

Anthropic hasn't decided what the chip does or how powerful it needs to be. Just that it wants one.

The company just hired Clive Chan, an early member of OpenAI's own chip team. OpenAI shipped its first chip, Jalapeno, with Broadcom a week earlier. Now Anthropic is talking to Samsung about 2nm.

Anthropic says Nvidia, Google TPUs, and AWS Trainium stay central to its plan. This looks like a hedge, not a replacement.

full brief & sources

⚡ Why this matters

  • Every frontier lab is now designing chips, not just buying them.
  • Samsung becomes a credible third fab option next to TSMC.
  • Custom silicon is the next lever after custom models.

🔍 What happened

  • The Information first reported the talks on July 2.
  • Anthropic is looking at Samsung's 2nm process and advanced packaging.
  • Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron all put money into Anthropic's $65B raise in May.
  • Anthropic hired Clive Chan from OpenAI's chip team.
  • The move follows OpenAI's Jalapeno chip with Broadcom, unveiled June 24.
  • Anthropic called AWS, Google, and Nvidia chips still central to its compute strategy.

💬 Smart takes

  • Anthropic spokesperson: a diversified hardware stack including chips from Google, Amazon, and Nvidia will continue to be pivotal to how the company scales.
  • Skeptic: Reuters reported Anthropic was only 'weighing' chip plans back in April, with no dedicated team and no committed design. Talks are not tape-out.

🧭 Where this goes

  1. LikelyAnthropic keeps Nvidia, TPUs, and Trainium as its main compute for at least the next 2 years.
  2. Likelymore senior chip talent moves from OpenAI, Google, or Nvidia into Anthropic's hardware group.
  3. Possiblea firm Samsung deal gets announced within 6 months, naming the chip's purpose.
  4. Wild CardAnthropic's chip ships before OpenAI's Jalapeno reaches gigawatt-scale deployment.

🥄 The Spoon Take

Every lab that can afford it is now building its own chips. That's not efficiency, it's insurance against Nvidia's pricing power and Nvidia's waitlist. The labs racing to out-model each other are now racing to out-silicon each other too.

🤔 Pushback

Talks with a fab partner are cheap. Custom chips cost hundreds of millions and take years. Anthropic may never tape one out.

·TechCrunch - Anthropic-Samsung chip talks·CNBC - April chip-weighing report·The Information - Original chip-talks scoop