Anthropic is facing a severe shortage of computing power due to surging demand for its large language model Claude and its AI coding tool, Claude Code. To secure new supply channels, the company is in negotiations with Microsoft, planning to lease servers powered by Microsoft's self-developed Maia 200 AI chips.
If this partnership is realized, it would mark a significant milestone for Microsoft's in-house chip business, securing its most substantial external client to date. This move could help Microsoft overcome its competitive disadvantage in the supply of specialized AI chips, where it has been lagging behind rivals like Google and Amazon. Currently, Anthropic has similar agreements in place with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google, utilizing their proprietary chips.
Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, publicly acknowledged earlier this month that the company is experiencing difficulties with computing capacity. In an urgent effort to address the shortage, Anthropic had previously reached an agreement with SpaceX to lease the full computing capacity of its Colossus 1 supercomputer.
Microsoft launched its second-generation Maia 200 chip in January this year. According to CEO Satya Nadella, the Maia 200 improves token processing efficiency per dollar by over 30% compared to existing chips. Should the negotiations succeed, the arrangement would provide Anthropic with immediate computational resources, bypassing the need to wait in line for other partnerships scheduled for later this year.
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