Microsoft announced new strategic partnerships with Nvidia and artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, signalling a move to broaden its AI investments. This development suggests a diversification strategy, potentially reducing Microsoft’s dependence on OpenAI, a company in which it already holds a significant stake. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI research executives, is known for developing the Claude family of large language models. The company aims to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
As part of the new agreements, Microsoft is set to invest up to $5 billion into Anthropic, while Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion. These investments have reportedly boosted Anthropic’s valuation to around $350 billion, a substantial increase from its previous valuation of $183 billion in September. The terms of the ongoing funding round are still being finalised. Nvidia and Anthropic will collaborate to support the startup’s growth, focusing on engineering and design to optimise Anthropic’s models and Nvidia’s architectures.
Anthropic has committed to purchasing $30 billion of Azure compute capacity from Microsoft and has contracted for additional compute capacity up to 1 gigawatt. Additionally, it will purchase up to 1 gigawatt of compute capacity with Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, praising Anthropic’s work and the opportunity to accelerate the development of Claude.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasised the need for broad collaboration in the AI sector. He stated the importance of building durable capabilities to ensure the technology delivers tangible success across various sectors and countries. Amazon Web Services will continue to serve as Anthropic’s primary cloud provider and primary training partner. Nvidia is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on Wednesday.
