Anthropic explores Samsung chip talks, still relies on Nvidia

Anthropic is in talks with Samsung Electronics to explore manufacturing a custom AI chip, and the project is reportedly still in early stages with no detailed design yet. The company has said chips from AWS, Google and Nvidia "remain central to its strategy," even as it hires chip engineers to build an internal team.

What is Anthropic planning?

Anthropic is exploring a custom AI chip with Samsung, though it has not decided what the chip would do, how it would fit into servers, or how powerful it must be. The Information reported the discussions, and TechCrunch added that Anthropic has not settled the chip's role or specifications. The company declined to offer a chip roadmap.

Anthropic has started hiring chip engineers, including Clive Chan, described as an early member of both Tesla's and OpenAI's custom chip teams. Chan is expected to build out a dedicated chip group at Anthropic, a move that signals internal capability development even while design details remain unspecified.

How does this compare with other AI chip efforts?

Custom silicon is already a common strategy: OpenAI recently unveiled an in-house inference chip called "Jalapeño," built with Broadcom, and cloud providers run their own silicon for AI workloads. TechCrunch noted OpenAI claims "Jalapeño" demonstrates better performance-per-watt than competitor chips. Amazon and Google both offer custom-built TPUs, and Meta operates custom silicon tuned for its workloads.

Samsung is already a major manufacturing partner in the AI supply chain, producing chips for Nvidia and working with Nvidia on software and an AI chip factory in South Korea. TechCrunch also said Samsung has discussed partnerships with Google. Reuters earlier reported in April that Anthropic had toyed with the idea of producing its own AI chips amid chip shortages.

Why it matters

Custom chips change where profit and control accrue: companies that build and run AI infrastructure more cheaply can keep more revenue. The primary source explicitly put the broader trend this way, and the industry response is visible in several firms' moves: OpenAI's in-house inference chip, cloud providers' TPUs, and now Anthropic's exploratory talks with a major foundry partner. Anthropic hiring a chip lead with experience at Tesla and OpenAI shows the company is investing in competency it lacks today while preserving access to third-party chips.

What to watch

Watch whether Anthropic publishes a chip roadmap or announces design targets, and whether the dedicated chip group led by Clive Chan issues a hiring or organizational update. The next concrete signals will be a disclosed chip specification, a manufacturing agreement with Samsung, or a stated migration plan away from third-party providers such as Nvidia, Google, or AWS.

Sources referenced in this summary include a July 2, 2026 report that Anthropic is in talks with Samsung and TechCrunch coverage noting earlier Reuters reporting from April and industry context including OpenAI's "Jalapeño" processor and Samsung's manufacturing ties to Nvidia.