Anthropic, Microsoft in talks for AI chip deal after $5 billion investment

Microsoft is currently in discussions to provide its custom artificial intelligence chips to Anthropic, as confirmed by CNBC on Thursday. If finalized, this agreement would mark a significant advancement for Microsoft, strengthening its position in the competitive cloud market, where it currently trails behind Amazon and Google in delivering specialized AI silicon to clients. Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled its second-generation Maia AI chip, although it has yet to be integrated into its Azure cloud services. According to an insider who wished to remain anonymous, a formal agreement regarding the use of the Maia 200 chip has not yet been reached between Microsoft and Anthropic. Reports from The Information earlier today highlighted these ongoing negotiations, which have garnered attention within the industry. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the deal, Microsoft's stock saw minimal fluctuations. In November, the tech giant announced a substantial $5 billion investment in Anthropic, which in turn pledged to allocate $30 billion for Azure cloud services. Anthropic has also been utilizing cloud offerings from its competitors, Amazon and Google. Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, expressed concerns earlier this month regarding the company's computational challenges. The growing popularity of their AI tools, Claude and Claude Code, has intensified the demand for computational resources. In a recent disclosure, SpaceX revealed that Anthropic will be investing $1.25 billion per month for computing power until May 2029. Traditionally, Anthropic has depended heavily on Nvidia's graphics processing units to train and operate its generative AI models. Earlier this year, the company announced a decade-long partnership with Amazon Web Services to utilize its custom Trainum chips, which is valued at over $100 billion. Additionally, Anthropic stated plans to employ Google's tensor processing unit chips as of October. Representatives from both Microsoft and Anthropic have not yet responded to requests for comment about the potential agreement. On a recent earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted that the Maia 200 chip boasts over 30% better performance in tokens per dollar than the latest offerings in their fleet, with these chips already operational in Microsoft data centers located in Arizona and Iowa.