Anthropic in Talks with Samsung for Custom AI Chip to Cut Costs

Anthropic is reportedly in early-stage discussions with Samsung to develop a custom AI chip, aiming to lower compute costs and reduce dependence on Nvidia hardware. According to The Information, the talks are further along than with other potential partners, and the focus is on cost control rather than raw performance. This move aligns with broader industry trends: OpenAI recently announced its own inference chip 'Jalapeño' built with Broadcom, while cloud giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all have custom data center chips. Meta has also developed its own AI accelerators. For Samsung, the partnership would strengthen its position in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced chip fabrication, leveraging soaring memory prices and Nvidia's supply constraints.

Anthropic has been slower than competitors to build its own compute infrastructure. It operates two data centers in Texas and New York—built with Fluidstack—expected to come online this year, and has secured compute through equity deals with Amazon and Google. More notably, it signed a multi-year agreement with SpaceX for access to its Colossus 1 data center at a staggering $1.25 billion per month. The company's reliance on rented capacity has led to more frequent downtime compared to OpenAI and Google, but also kept it cash-efficient—one report suggests profitability in Q2 2026. Meanwhile, Claude's growing enterprise adoption is causing capacity strain. The US government recently banned exports of Anthropic's most powerful model 'Fable', and the company is working on a relaunch. To address immediate needs, Anthropic launched 'Sonnet', a smaller, cheaper model with stronger agentic features and safety protections. Custom chips from Samsung could eventually mean lower costs, better availability, and fewer slowdowns for businesses building on Claude.