Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp on Tuesday announced investments totaling US$15 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Anthropic PBC, creator of the Claude chatbot, amid frenzied spending on the technology and growing fears of a bubble.
AI chip powerhouse Nvidia committed up to US$10 billion, while Microsoft — which owns 27 percent of Anthropic rival OpenAI — pledged up to US$5 billion to the San Francisco-based start-up.
Microsoft also continues investing heavily in its own Copilot AI that runs on the company’s Azure platform.
Photo: Reuters
The deal was part of a sweeping agreement that saw Anthropic commit to purchasing US$30 billion in Microsoft’s cloud computing capacity and adopt the latest versions of Nvidia’s chip technology.
The joint announcements by CEOs Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) of Nvidia came just ahead of the opening of Microsoft’s annual Ignite developer conference.
“We’re increasingly going to be customers of each other,” Nadella said in an online video announcing the deal. “We will use Anthropic models. They will use our infrastructure, and we’ll go to market together to help our customers realize the value of AI.”
The investments mark a significant realignment in the generative AI sector, where competition has intensified between ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and rivals including Anthropic, but also Google, which released its latest Gemini model on Tuesday.
Anthropic was launched in 2021 by former OpenAI staff and positions itself as prioritizing safety in AI development. Its flagship product is the Claude chatbot and family of models.
Tech industry rivals, which also include Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Elon Musk’s xAI, have been pouring tens of billions of dollars into AI since the blockbuster launch of the first version of ChatGPT in late 2022.
Meanwhile, Nvidia has become a coveted source of high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) tailored for generative AI. The company’s GPUs, originally designed for gaming systems, have become the essential building blocks of AI applications, with tech giants scrambling to secure them for their data centers and AI projects.
Sources told CNBC that the fresh investment valued Anthropic at US$350 billion, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies. OpenAI was most recently valued at US$500 billion.
The massive investment in Anthropic comes a month after Nvidia announced it would pump as much as US$100 billion into OpenAI, building infrastructure for future generations of the technology.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
The US has cleared about 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia Corp’s second-most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chip, the H200, but not a single delivery has been made so far, three people familiar with the matter said, leaving a major technology deal in limbo as chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) seeks a breakthrough in China this week. Huang, who was not initially listed in a White House delegation to Beijing, joined the trip after an invitation from US President Donald Trump, a source said. Trump picked him up in Alaska en route to a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS