Key Points
- Microsoft and Nvidia are investing in the AI startup Anthropic. Nvidia will commit up to $10 billion, and Microsoft will commit up to $5 billion.
- Anthropic has also committed to spending $30 billion on Microsoft’s cloud services.
- The deal is seen as a move to reduce the AI industry’s reliance on OpenAI.
- Anthropic’s Claude will become the only major AI model offered across all three major cloud providers (Microsoft, Amazon, Google).
Microsoft and Nvidia are set to invest in the AI startup Anthropic as part of a new partnership. The deal includes a $30 billion commitment from Anthropic, the creator of the AI model Claude, to use Microsoft’s cloud services. This is the latest in a series of high-profile deals that are linking the major players in the AI industry.
Nvidia will commit up to $10 billion to Anthropic, and Microsoft will commit up to $5 billion, the companies announced on Tuesday. This move highlights the AI industry’s massive need for computing power as companies race to build systems that can match or even surpass human intelligence. It also brings Microsoft, a major backer of OpenAI, and the key AI chip supplier Nvidia closer to OpenAI’s biggest rival.
“We’re increasingly going to be customers of each other. We will use Anthropic models, they will use our infrastructure, and we’ll go to market together,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He also added that OpenAI “remains a critical partner.”
This deal comes just weeks after OpenAI announced a major restructuring that moved it further away from its non-profit origins. Since then, OpenAI has announced a $38 billion deal to buy cloud services from Amazon, reducing its reliance on Microsoft.
Some see the new partnership as a move to reduce the AI industry’s dependence on OpenAI. “Microsoft has decided not to rely on one frontier model company. Nvidia was also somewhat dependent on OpenAI’s success and is now helping generate broader demand,” said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria.
Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI staff, has become a major competitor to the maker of ChatGPT, especially given its strong adoption among business customers.
As part of the new deal, Anthropic will work with Nvidia on chip and model development and will commit up to 1 gigawatt of computing power using Nvidia’s hardware. Microsoft will also offer its Azure AI customers access to the latest Claude models, making it the only major AI model available across all three big cloud providers.
