Move Over Nvidia: Anthropic and Samsung Team Up to Break the AI Chip Monopoly

Anthropic Fires Back at OpenAI’s ‘Jalapeño’ Chip with Secret Samsung Talks:

Anthropic Is in Talks With Samsung to Build a Custom AI Chip:

Following OpenAI's Broadcom deal, Anthropic explores its own path away from Nvidia dependence

April 2026: When Reuters first reported Anthropic's chip ambition

3 Partners: Google, Amazon, and Nvidia already in Anthropic's hardware stack

"Jalapeño": OpenAI's custom inference chip, built with Broadcom

1: From Idea to Active Talks:

Anthropic's chip ambitions are no longer just speculation. Back in April, Reuters reported that Anthropic was weighing whether to build its own AI chips as a way to get ahead of ongoing chip shortages. That early exploration now appears to be moving into a more concrete phase: The Information reported Thursday that Anthropic is in active talks with Samsung to explore a manufacturing collaboration on a custom chip.

The details, though, are still far from settled. According to the report, Anthropic hasn't yet determined what the chip would actually be used for, how it would fit into server architecture, or how powerful it would need to be. In other words, this is a partnership still taking shape, not a finished product.

2: Anthropic's Measured Public Response:

When TechCrunch reached out for comment, Anthropic didn't confirm or deny the Samsung discussions directly. Instead, the company reiterated that a diversified hardware stack, one that already includes chips from Google, Amazon, and Nvidia, will remain central to its compute strategy going forward. On the specific question of a Samsung partnership, Anthropic said it had nothing further to add.

3: Why Every Major AI Lab Wants Its Own Silicon:

Anthropic is far from alone in pursuing custom hardware. A growing number of AI companies are developing their own chips, both to create hardware tuned for specific compute workloads and to reduce reliance on Nvidia, which remains the dominant force in the chip industry. Building proprietary silicon gives these companies more control over cost, supply, and performance as demand for compute keeps climbing.

The timing here looks pointed. Anthropic's reported Samsung talks come just a week after its closest competitor, OpenAI, announced its own custom inference processor, called "Jalapeño," built in partnership with Broadcom. OpenAI has claimed the chip delivers better performance-per-watt than competing options on the market. Amazon and Google have already staked out this territory too, each offering custom-built TPUs, Trainium and Cloud TPU respectively, as part of their cloud platforms.

4: Samsung's Deep Ties to the AI Chip Ecosystem:

Samsung isn't a newcomer to this space. The company is already a major manufacturing partner for Nvidia, producing chips that Nvidia needs to train and run its AI models, while Samsung in turn relies on Nvidia's software for its own chip-making processes. The two companies are also jointly building an AI chip factory in South Korea, a sign of just how intertwined their operations already are.

Samsung's ambitions extend beyond Nvidia, too. The company has also held discussions with Google about partnering on its next generation of AI chips, positioning Samsung as one of the most sought-after manufacturing partners in the industry, and a natural choice for Anthropic as it weighs its own path into custom silicon.

The AI Infrastructure Race Isn't Just for Frontier Labs Anymore:

Anthropic's custom chip talks with Samsung underscore a bigger trend: even the world's most advanced AI companies are rethinking their infrastructure to control cost, performance, and supply. Your business doesn't need to build silicon to apply the same principle, choosing the right AI foundation matters.

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