News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
AMD to Supply 'Helios' AI Accelerators to Anthropic in $5 Billion Deal
Strategic equity investment and 2 GW AI infrastructure challenge Nvidia's market dominance AMD has entered into a strategic partnership with Anthropic and is pursuing an equity investment of up to 5 billion dollars (approximately 6.9 trillion Korean won). As AMD secures Anthropic as a major client following OpenAI, Meta, Oracle, and Microsoft, cracks are beginning to appear in the AI accelerator market, which had solidified into a one-strongman system led by Nvidia. ◇ AMD to Supply 'Helios' AI Accelerators on a Large Scale to Anthropic AMD announced the partnership on the first day of its 'AMD Advancing AI 2026' event, held at the Moscone West in San Francisco on the 22nd (local time). The core of the agreement is the supply of the 'Helios' AI accelerator rack system, which has a maximum capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW), to Anthropic. Under this contract, AMD will begin constructing the first 1 GW facility in the first half of 2027. A 1 GW capacity is equivalent to the power generated by one nuclear power plant, indicating that Anthropic is moving to secure large-scale AI infrastructure. The remaining 1 GW is also scheduled to be added sequentially, bringing the total contract size to a power capacity equivalent to two nuclear power plants. Anthropic plans to build a data center by integrating AMD's latest AI semiconductors, including the graphics processing unit (GPU) 'MI455X,' the server central processing unit (CPU) EPYC 'Venice,' Pensando networking equipment for data transmission, and driving software. This holds significant meaning as Anthropic has expanded its collaboration with AMD on a large scale, demonstrating trust in AMD's AI accelerators. Alongside this, AMD plans to pursue a strategic equity investment of up to 5 billion dollars in Anthropic. Given that it is rare for semiconductor companies to invest in equity while supplying large-scale GPUs to clients, this move is seen as creating a close-knit structure intertwined through capital, beyond a simple 'supplier-client' relationship. ◇ Collaboration Extends to Semiconductor Development with Claude... Strengthening Software Ties Separately from the hardware supply agreement, the two companies announced a collaboration plan to directly utilize Anthropic's AI model Claude in AMD's semiconductor development. AMD aims to enhance the completeness of its software platform 'ROCm,' which maximizes GPU performance in actual workloads, by using Claude as a development assistant tool for improving its semiconductors and software. AMD plans to further expand the use of Claude across its engineering and product development organizations. In the semiconductor industry, this approach of strengthening ties with clients from the software development stage, rather than merely selling hardware, is analyzed as a response to Nvidia's developer lock-in strategy built through the CUDA ecosystem. This announcement gains greater significance when combined with the previously revealed partnership with Microsoft for Azure. AMD has now secured all major AI companies -- OpenAI, Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, and Anthropic -- as clients. During the briefing, AMD stated that eight out of the world's top 10 AI companies are already operating workloads on its Instinct GPUs. According to a source from AMD, "The AI accelerator market has effectively been dominated by a single player, Nvidia. However, as AMD continues to secure major AI companies as clients, the trend of establishing itself as a practical alternative supplier is becoming clear."
Anthropic Eyes Samsung for Custom AI Chips
Move aligns with industry shift from NVIDIA GPUs, could bolster Samsung's foundry amid Tesla, OpenAI ties Anthropic, the world's most valuable private artificial intelligence (AI) startup with a valuation of 965 billion dollars, is in discussions with Samsung Electronics to produce its own AI chips, according to a report by U.S. IT media outlet The Information on the 2nd (local time). Anthropic reportedly hired Clive Chan, who previously worked on custom chip development at OpenAI, last month to lead its in-house AI chip development. The company is also said to be in talks with multiple chip design firms. Once the detailed design is finalized, Anthropic is considering utilizing Samsung Electronics' 2-nanometer (1 nanometer equals one-billionth of a meter) foundry process and advanced packaging. The 2-nanometer process is the latest technology and the same one Samsung uses to manufacture Tesla's AI chips. Industry observers suggest that if Samsung secures the order for Anthropic's AI chips, it could boost the foundry business, which has recently secured big tech clients like Tesla. Anthropic's move aligns with the tech industry trend of developing in-house AI chips to reduce reliance on NVIDIA's graphics processing units (GPUs), which are widely used in AI accelerators. Google has consistently released its own Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), while OpenAI recently unveiled its first custom inference chip, "Jalapeno," developed in collaboration with Broadcom. Anthropic avoided specific comments on its chip development plans, stating, "NVIDIA's GPUs, Google's TPUs, and Amazon Web Services' (AWS) 'Trainium' chips will continue to play a central role in Anthropic's computational resources." In May, Anthropic announced a 65 billion dollars (approximately 100.1 trillion Korean won) investment round, with global memory giants Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron participating as strategic infrastructure partners. At the time, Anthropic noted, "These technologies play a key role in supplying memory, storage devices, and logic chips worldwide." South Korea's tech industry speculated that Anthropic, which is developing its own AI chips, might collaborate with Samsung's foundry business. Among the three memory companies that are Anthropic's strategic partners, Samsung is the only one operating a foundry business.
