Anthropic seeks semiconductor supplies from SK Hynix as AI firms race to build custom chips

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, has approached SK Hynix about securing memory chip supplies to support its ambitions of producing custom semiconductors. The chip chase heats up Anthropic’s outreach to SK Hynix centers on high-bandwidth memory, the specialized chips that serve as the circulatory system of modern AI hardware. SK Hynix is one of the world’s leading suppliers of HBM, providing critical components to organizations running AI training and inference workloads. The South Korean chipmaker has been expanding capacity aggressively, with plans for a US ADR listing that could raise up to $26.5 billion. Anthropic’s interest in building its own chips has been brewing since at least April 2026. By July, reports surfaced that the company was in discussions with Samsung Electronics about manufacturing capabilities, specifically around 2nm chips and advanced packaging techniques. Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H funding round in May 2026, achieving a post-money valuation of roughly $965 billion. SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Micron Technology all participated as strategic investors in that round. The vertical integration playbook Anthropic is following...