Anthropic to Develop Its Own AI Chips! Has Sought Supply from SK Hynix
Following Google, Amazon, and Meta Platforms, AI developer Anthropic has joined the race for in-house chip development—a move SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won described as "remarkable."
Anthropic has submitted a supply request to SK Hynix for the manufacture of its self-developed semiconductors.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won disclosed this news while sharing the stage with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at an AI event in San Francisco, describing the AI developer's chip ambitions as "remarkable."
Previously, Anthropic had announced a $50 billion data center investment plan and was reported to be exploring in-house chip development.
Seeking support directly from suppliers indicates that in-house chip development is moving from planning to implementation.
Pursuing Compute Autonomy
Anthropic's compute layout began in November 2025, when the company announced a $50 billion investment to partner with Fluidstack to build data centers in Texas and New York specifically designed for AI workloads.
In April 2026, Anthropic's in-house chip plan came to light, covering directions such as ASICs and GPUs, aiming to reduce reliance on external chip suppliers amid the ongoing global shortage of computing power.
Similar vertical integration paths are common among Silicon Valley tech giants: Google has TPUs, Amazon has Trainium, and Meta Platforms is also making significant investments in custom hardware. Now, Anthropic has joined these ranks.
SK Hynix: Investor and Supplier
In recent years, SK's strategic focus has gradually shifted toward AI infrastructure and semiconductor R&D. Its subsidiary, SK Hynix, is a leading global producer of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)—a type of chip indispensable for large-scale AI training.
In May 2026, SK Hynix participated in Anthropic's Series H funding round alongside Samsung and Micron. On July 10, SK Hynix completed its listing on Nasdaq with a valuation of $26.5 billion, as the market has already priced in the critical role of memory chip suppliers in the AI supply chain.
Chey Tae-won's remarks came shortly after SK Hynix's listing. During the same period, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung visited Silicon Valley and held an AI summit, where multiple technical collaborations were announced, including cooperation agreements between NVIDIA, South Korea's Naver, and the SK Group.
