AMD and Anthropic Forge Strategic Partnership Worth Billions

Details of Anthropic's relationship with AMD surfaced following a Wall Street Journal publication: according to WSJ, hyperscalers are limiting Anthropic's computing power. One way the company found to circumvent these limitations was to commit to purchasing computing services from AMD worth billions of dollars, while AMD committed to buying billions in Anthropic's shares.

It creates a closed loop: Anthropic's IPO prospectus, aimed at a generous valuation, shows that AMD is ready to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic's shares – in the same document where Anthropic commits to purchasing over $20 billion in computing services from AMD.

Contractors usually provide services for a fee, rather than reinvesting that fee into the client's shares. AMD, however, described the arrangement as a "strategic partnership" aimed at securing a major client. A skeptic might say otherwise: de facto, it's a discount through a share buyback.

The deal covers up to two gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450 chips starting from the first half of 2027. "We are pleased to deepen our partnership with Anthropic," stated AMD's CEO. This is certainly one way to describe a $5 billion investment back into one's own client.

The news of the $5 billion "strategic partnership" in July emerged months before the September IPO prospectus, which disclosed Anthropic's commitment to purchase over $20 billion in computing from AMD. AMD's quarterly report, in turn, mentions "investment commitments of up to $5.0 billion, subject to certain contingencies, expected to be made by the 2028 fiscal year." Notably, Anthropic is not named in this document, although the figure exactly matches the commitment to them.

"Access to computing is critical for Claude to remain at the forefront and for us to meet customer demand," said Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown in July.

In 2025, Anthropic was losing money at an alarming rate: operating losses exceeded $8 billion with revenue of only $4.6 billion. AMD's investment will certainly help maintain the company's optimistic valuation despite these losses.