Nvidia, Microsoft pour $15bn into AI startup Anthropic

Nvidia and Microsoft on Tuesday announced a combined $15 billion investment in Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI models, marking one of the largest funding boosts yet in the fast-growing generative AI sector.

Under the agreement, Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion and Microsoft up to $5 billion in the San Francisco–based startup. In turn, Anthropic has committed to spend $30 billion on Microsoft’s cloud services and to integrate Nvidia’s latest chip technologies into its AI systems.

“We’re increasingly going to be customers of each other,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an online announcement. “We will use Anthropic models, they will use our infrastructure, and we’ll jointly help customers unlock the value of AI.”

The deal reshapes the competitive landscape of AI, intensifying the rivalry among Anthropic, OpenAI—27% owned by Microsoft—and Google, which just released a new version of its Gemini model.

Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic emphasizes safety-focused AI development and has quickly risen to prominence with its Claude chatbot.

Despite the high-profile investment, tech stocks dipped amid broader market concerns about a potential AI bubble. Nvidia shares fell up to 3%, while Microsoft dropped nearly 3.5% during trading on Tuesday.

Sources told CNBC that the new funding round values Anthropic at about $350 billion, placing it among the world’s most valuable companies. OpenAI was last valued at around $500 billion.