Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ:AMD, a semiconductor company competing in artificial intelligence computing, has agreed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, the AI developer behind Claude, as the companies expand their relationship through a major chip deployment. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Anthropic could purchase as much as 2 gigawatts of AMD's latest-generation Instinct MI450 chips, with deployment expected to begin in the first half of 2027. The planned capacity highlights the scale of the arrangement, as a single gigawatt can provide enough electricity to power as many as 750,000 U.S. homes at any given time.
The partnership could strengthen AMD's position against NVIDIA NASDAQ:NVDA, the leading AI chipmaker and an existing investor in and supplier to Anthropic. AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su said the collaboration combines Anthropic's frontier AI capabilities with AMD's high-performance computing technology, with the companies seeking to accelerate AI adoption. Anthropic has also pursued other arrangements to increase its computing resources, including an agreement with Elon Musk's SpaceXAI and discussions with Meta Platforms NASDAQ:META, a technology company whose platforms and operations require large-scale computing infrastructure.
The deal adds to a growing series of funding and hardware agreements between AI developers, chipmakers, and cloud-computing providers as the technology industry builds infrastructure for training and operating AI models. OpenAI, an AI developer competing with Anthropic, announced in October that it would deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD graphics processors over several years while creating a potential route for the startup to acquire a large stake in AMD. Anthropic, which also counts NVIDIA as a major investor and hardware supplier, raised $65 billion earlier this year at a valuation of $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI's valuation for the first time, and is reportedly considering an initial public offering as soon as this fall. Investors may view the agreement as a potentially important opportunity for AMD to expand adoption of its AI chips while gaining a larger role in the infrastructure supporting Anthropic's growth.