Anthropic reportedly weighs custom AI chip talks with Samsung Electronics

Anthropic is in early talks with Samsung Electronics about manufacturing a custom AI chip, a move that would pull one of the biggest AI labs deeper into the contest over compute supply, cost and performance. The chip is still undefined: Anthropic has not decided what it would be used for, how it would fit into a server or how powerful it would be.

The discussions come as Anthropic continues to lean on Nvidia GPUs, Google TPUs and Amazon chips while it explores whether to build its own silicon. The company began examining the idea earlier this year after a shortage of AI chips exposed how dependent frontier model developers remain on outside suppliers for training and inference workloads.

The timing is notable because OpenAI and Broadcom unveiled Jalapeño on June 24, 2026, giving the company its first Intelligence Processor and first AI accelerator in a multi-generation compute platform with Broadcom. OpenAI said Jalapeño was developed from design to production in nine months, was built for large language model inference and would be deployed at gigawatt scale with data center partners. The company also said early testing showed performance per watt substantially better than current state-of-the-art chips.

That sequence points to a broader shift in the AI arms race. The competition is no longer just about model quality or product features. Major labs are moving down the supply chain, trying to own more of the hardware stack that determines whether they can get enough chips, at what price and with what efficiency. Custom silicon offers a way to reduce exposure to Nvidia, still the dominant supplier in AI accelerators, while giving AI companies more control over how their systems are built and deployed.

Samsung would also gain from the arrangement if the talks lead anywhere. The South Korean conglomerate has been pushing its foundry business at advanced nodes, including 2-nanometer technology, and a role in a custom AI chip would give it a high-profile win in a market where manufacturing capacity and process technology are strategic assets. For Anthropic, Samsung would provide a path into chip production even before the company settles on a final architecture or use case.

The result is a tighter competition for the physical infrastructure behind AI. OpenAI has moved first with Broadcom. Anthropic is now exploring its own route with Samsung. Together, those moves suggest the power balance in AI is shifting from whoever can build the biggest model to whoever can secure the chips, factories and economics to keep scaling it.