#AI chips

A survey of 60 Chinese executives shows firms are reducing Nvidia AI accelerator purchases and plan to allocate 46% of their AI chip budget to domestic alternatives within the next 12 months, up from 30% currently. This shift signals a major realignment in the global AI hardware supply chain, driven by China's data center investment plan and geopolitical tensions, which could significantly impact Nvidia's revenue and accelerate domestic chipmakers like Hygon and Cambricon. China plans to invest roughly 2 trillion yuan ($275 billion) in data centers over the next five years, with at least 80% of core technology sourced domestically, benefiting companies such as Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei, Hygon, and Cambricon.

Anthropic has started developing its own AI chips and is in early negotiations with Samsung Electronics for manufacturing, aiming to gain more control over the compute infrastructure for its Claude model. This move signals Anthropic's strategic push toward vertical integration in AI hardware, reducing reliance on external chip suppliers like Google and Amazon. If successful, it could enhance performance and cost-efficiency for Claude, similar to OpenAI's chip efforts. The project is still in early stages, and Anthropic may ultimately decide to only purchase AI chips instead. Custom AI chip development is extremely costly, with R&D potentially exceeding $500 million.