Anthropic is reportedly in early discussions to rent server capacity powered by Microsoft’s Maia chips, according to The Information and CNBC.
The talks come shortly after Anthropic agreed to use Google’s cloud infrastructure and Tensor Processing Units under a large multi-year agreement. They also follow a separate Microsoft agreement announced in November. Under that deal, Microsoft said it would invest US$5 billion in Anthropic, while Anthropic committed to spending US$30 billion on Azure.
As part of that Microsoft agreement, Anthropic also committed to contract additional compute capacity of up to 1GW. Anthropic also uses cloud services from Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
Microsoft Maia talks remain early
The servers under discussion would use Maia, Microsoft’s in-house AI accelerator. Microsoft has announced its second-generation Maia AI chip, but the processor is not yet available through Azure.
Maia 200 is designed for AI inference. Microsoft said the chip delivers 30% better performance per dollar than the latest-generation hardware in its fleet.
Anthropic is best known for Claude, its family of AI models. The report also noted that Claude Code, the company’s AI-assisted programming tool, has gained wider use this year.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said earlier this month that the company has had “difficulties with compute.”
The reported Microsoft discussions remain at an early stage. CNBC said Anthropic has not closed a deal with Microsoft over the use of Maia.
Google and AWS deals add compute capacity
The talks follow Anthropic’s reported US$200 billion infrastructure agreement with Google. That deal gives Anthropic access to Google Cloud systems and Google’s custom Tensor Processing Units over five years.
Anthropic also said in April that it had signed an agreement with Google and Broadcom for multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity. That capacity is expected to come online starting in 2027.
Google has long used TPUs for AI workloads across its own services and cloud customers. Through Google Cloud, those chips are also available to external customers.
Anthropic has also expanded its use of Amazon Web Services infrastructure. In April, Anthropic said it would use AWS’s custom Trainium chips under a 10-year arrangement worth more than US$100 billion.
Anthropic said the AWS commitment secures up to 5GW of new capacity to train and run Claude. The agreement covers Graviton and Trainium chips, including future generations of Amazon’s custom silicon.
Cloud providers expand custom AI chips
Microsoft has been developing Maia as part of its wider custom silicon programme. Chief executive Satya Nadella said on Microsoft’s April earnings call that Maia 200 offers more than 30% better tokens per dollar compared with the latest silicon in Microsoft’s fleet.
Microsoft said Maia 200 is already running in production in its US Central region near Des Moines, Iowa. Deployment in US West 3, near Phoenix, Arizona, is expected to follow.
Anthropic has historically relied heavily on Nvidia GPUs to train and run generative AI models. Nvidia remains a major supplier of advanced AI processors. Google, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft have each developed custom AI chips for cloud infrastructure.
Google offers its TPU platform through Google Cloud. Amazon Web Services has Trainium and Inferentia, while Microsoft has Maia.
OpenAI has also been reported to be working with Broadcom on custom AI chips.
Anthropic has infrastructure and investment relationships with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Amazon has invested billions of dollars in the company, while Google and Microsoft also have financial and cloud relationships with the AI company.
A Microsoft Maia agreement would add another compute supplier to Anthropic’s existing cloud relationships. Those relationships include AWS Trainium, Google TPUs, and Microsoft Azure compute commitments.
(Photo by BoliviaInteligente)
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