Anthropic is in discussions with Samsung to explore a potential collaboration on a custom AI chip, according to a report by The Information, marking a significant step forward from earlier indications that the company was merely considering entering the chip design space.
Key details remain unresolved, including what the chip will be used for, how it will integrate into server infrastructure, and what level of performance it will target. Anthropic confirmed to TechCrunch that its compute strategy will continue to rely on a diversified hardware stack drawing on chips from Google, Amazon, and Nvidia, but declined to comment further on the Samsung discussions.
The move situates Anthropic within a broader industry push to reduce dependence on Nvidia, which remains the dominant force in AI chip supply. OpenAI last week announced its own custom inference processor, dubbed Jalapeño, developed in partnership with Broadcom and positioned as more power-efficient than competing chips. Amazon and Google both produce proprietary AI chips as part of their cloud infrastructure.
Samsung brings established credentials to any such partnership. The company is already a significant manufacturing partner for Nvidia, producing chips used in AI training and inference workloads, and is collaborating with Nvidia on an AI chip factory in South Korea. Samsung has also held discussions with Google on chip manufacturing.
Custom silicon has become a strategic priority across the AI industry, offering both hardware optimisation for specific workloads and greater supply chain independence.
