Anthropic wants to make its own chips to power Claude, it is assembling a team to get it done

Anthropic has decided to build its own AI chips to power Claude. According to reports, the company is assembling a dedicated silicon team that will help it develop custom chips to run future versions of its AI models.

In Short

• Anthropic is assembling an in-house silicon team to build custom AI chips 
• Custom chips could power future Claude models
• The company says it will continue working with Nvidia, Google, AWS and AMD 

Anthropic is assembling a team to build custom chips that might eventually power future generations of Claude, according to reports. The AI race is heating up, with companies rushing to build bigger and more capable models. But as these models become more powerful, so does the need for computing power. That, in turn, is driving unprecedented demand for advanced AI chips. The problem, however, is that the supply of these chips remains limited and is largely dominated by companies such as Nvidia. So, AI firms—like Anthropic—are looking for ways to reduce their dependence on third parties.

A report in the Business Insider suggests Anthropic is putting together an in-house silicon team to design custom AI chips. The company is said to have started hiring engineers with semiconductor design expertise for this team. The new team will be responsible for developing chips specifically for Claude. By designing hardware optimised for its own AI models, Anthropic would want to improve performance while lowering the cost of running increasingly powerful AI systems.

The announcement builds on earlier reports, which suggested that Anthropic was exploring the possibility of developing its own AI chips. At the time, the project was still in its early stages, reports claimed, with no dedicated team or final chip design in place. Reuters also reported that Anthropic was considering working with Samsung to manufacture the chips, although neither company has officially confirmed such a partnership.

For now, Anthropic powers Claude using a mix of chips from Amazon, Google and Nvidia. But according to the report, its own chips are not meant to replace those partners. Instead, the company says it will continue using hardware from AWS, Google, Nvidia and AMD alongside any future chips it designs itself.

Why is Anthropic building its own chips?

As companies are racing to build larger and more capable AI models, the cost of securing enough computing power has risen sharply. At the same time, the limited supply of advanced AI chips has pushed companies to look beyond buying off-the-shelf hardware and instead develop processors optimised for their own software. That growing demand for AI computing, coupled with persistent chip shortages, is one of the main reasons Anthropic began exploring custom silicon.

Anthropic has also been investing heavily in expanding its AI infrastructure. Earlier this year, the company entered into a long-term partnership with Google and Broadcom to work on TPUs as part of a broader effort to strengthen its computing capabilities. Designing its own chips could eventually give Anthropic greater control over performance, costs and the availability of computing power, while reducing its long-term dependence on external suppliers.

It is to be noted that building a successful AI chip, however, is neither quick nor easy. It requires highly specialised chip designers, manufacturing partners and years of testing before production can begin. For now, Anthropic's focus is reportedly on assembling the team that will help it build custom AI chips capable of powering future versions of Claude.

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