Anthropic confirmed Wednesday that it is building an in-house team to design custom chips for its Claude models, the latest step in its response to a shortage of the silicon needed to power and develop more advanced AI.
The startup said it is hiring engineers with experience across the hardware and software stack to co-design custom chips and AI models so Claude runs faster and more efficiently at the scale its customers demand.
Custom silicon is part of a multi-chip strategy, Anthropic said, and it will continue to rely on a diversified hardware stack that includes technology from Amazon Web Services, Google, Nvidia and AMD.
The company did not provide a timeline for its chip plans or say whether it intends to manufacture them itself. Designing an advanced AI chip can cost roughly $500M, according to industry sources, once skilled engineers and defect-free manufacturing are factored in.
Reuters reported in April that Anthropic was weighing building its own AI chips. The confirmation makes it the latest frontier lab to pull silicon design in-house as accelerator demand outpaces supply.
