Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced on Thursday that it is significantly expanding its use of Google Cloud and specialized chips in a deal valued at tens of billions of dollars. As part of the arrangement, Anthropic will purchase up to one million Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), custom-designed integrated circuits developed by Google, according to the San Francisco-based startup. The expansion is expected to bring more than a gigawatt of new computing power online by the end of 2026, enabling Anthropic to meet the “exponentially growing demand” for its Claude AI models, said Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao. Anthropic currently serves more than 300,000 business customers. Founded in early 2021 by former OpenAI employees who believed their previous employer was not doing enough to mitigate the risks of its AI models, Anthropic quickly established itself among the leading generative AI companies following the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022. Although it trails OpenAI in user base and brand recognition, Anthropic has been recognized as a top performer in generative AI for computer coding. Meanwhile, Google continues to invest heavily in AI as it competes with OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and others to lead the sector. The TPUs used in this deal compete with Nvidia’s highly sought-after GPUs. “Anthropic’s decision to significantly expand its use of TPUs reflects the strong performance and efficiency our teams have observed with TPUs over several years,” said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. “We are continuing to innovate and drive further efficiencies and increased capacity of our TPUs.” New model Anthropic last month launched its latest generative AI model, Claude Sonnet 4.5, which it says is the world’s best for computer programming. Anthropic’s new release is also touted as the most sophisticated for applications that allow an AI assistant to use a computer as a human would. Anthropic said early this month that it will open an office in India next year, as global generative AI players seek inroads into the world’s most populous country. Demand for AI tools and solutions has surged in India projected to have more than 900 million internet users by year’s end driven by growing adoption by both businesses and individuals. Anthropic is valued at $183 billion, while OpenAI’s valuation has reportedly soared after a private share sale to $500 billion, which would make it the world’s most valuable startup.
Anthropic inks major AI chip deal with Google
