Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have acquired strategic stakes in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence (AI) company behind the Claude AI models, as part of a major funding round that valued the US startup at US$965 billion.
The investment makes Anthropic the world’s most valuable AI company, surpassing OpenAI, which was valued at US$852 billion in March.
The two South Korean chipmakers joined the funding round as strategic infrastructure partners, alongside US memory company Micron, Anthropic announced last week.
The investment comes after Anthropic completed a US$65 billion Series H funding round, more than doubling its valuation from US$380 billion in February.
The move has also sparked speculation that Samsung could secure future AI chip manufacturing orders from Anthropic, potentially supporting growth in its foundry business.
In a statement, Anthropic said technologies from its memory partners play a critical role in the supply of memory, storage, and logic chips, helping the company scale computing capabilities to meet customer demand.
Industry attention has focused particularly on the mention of logic chips, which are produced through foundry manufacturing. Among Anthropic’s memory partners, Samsung is the only company with a foundry business, raising expectations that its role may extend beyond memory supply to manufacturing custom AI chips for Anthropic.
Such a development could benefit Samsung’s foundry unit, which has faced losses in recent years but is expected to return to profitability next year.
Samsung has recently secured chip orders from major technology players, including Tesla’s next-generation AI5 and AI6 chips, and is producing Nvidia’s Grok3 inference processor.
According to industry data, Samsung ranked second in the global foundry market last year with a 7.2 per cent market share, although it remains behind market leader TSMC.
An industry official described the investment as more than a financial move, saying it signals Samsung’s growing strategic ties with leading AI companies as demand for AI-related hardware continues to expand.
The funding round was co-led by Capital Group, Coatue, and Singapore’s GIC, with participation from investors including Blackstone, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, and Temasek.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic said its annualised revenue exceeded US$47 billion earlier this month and expects to achieve its first operating profit in the second quarter.
