Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, has begun early-stage work on its own custom AI chip and held preliminary talks with Samsung Electronics about manufacturing it, according to The Information, which cited people familiar with the plan.
Reporting by The Information's Qianer Liu describes the effort as focused on a custom AI server chip, with the discussions still at an early stage. Several outlets, including Tech Times and MLQ.ai, report that the chip is being aimed at a cutting-edge 2nm manufacturing process. According to The Korea Herald, Samsung is in talks to produce the advanced chips.
The move is widely framed as an attempt to reduce reliance on external suppliers — particularly Nvidia, whose processors dominate AI infrastructure. As Bing News and Indian Express summarize it, major AI firms are increasingly seeking alternatives to Nvidia-powered systems to cut costs. Even so, according to The Decoder, Anthropic is insisting that Nvidia still matters to its plans. The Decoder also reports that Anthropic has already hired chip engineers to support the work.
The timing stands out. According to TechCrunch, the news comes about a week after OpenAI announced its own custom AI chip in a partnership with Broadcom — a project The Decoder refers to by the codename "Jalapeño." For Samsung, digitimes notes the deal would be a marquee AI win in its competition for advanced chip business.
Why it matters: if the biggest AI companies start designing their own chips, it could loosen Nvidia's grip on the industry and reshape who controls the expensive hardware that powers artificial intelligence.