AI company Anthropic is exploring the possibility of designing its own chips. According to Reuters, this is prompted by the current shortage of AI chips, which are needed to run more advanced AI systems.
The plans are reportedly still in an early stage. No specific design has been decided yet, and no dedicated team has been put together for this project. A spokesperson for Anthropic declined to comment on the report to Reuters.
Anthropic uses various types of chips, including tensor processing units (TPUs) from Alphabet’s Google and chips from Amazon for the development and operation of the AI software and chatbot Claude.
Earlier this week, Anthropic signed a long-term agreement with Google and Broadcom, which helps design the TPUs. This agreement builds on the company’s earlier commitment to invest $50 billion in strengthening the American computing infrastructure.
Designing an advanced AI chip can cost about half a billion dollars, industry experts state. This is because companies must deploy skilled engineers and invest to ensure that the manufacturing process is free of defects.
