Microsoft artners with Anthropic and Nvidia in Cloud Infrastructure Deal – Firstpost

Microsoft and Nvidia plan to invest in Anthropic under a new alliance that includes a $30 billion commitment by the cloud maker to use Microsoft’s cloud services, the latest high-profile deal to tie together major players in the AI ​​industry.

Nvidia will pledge up to $10 billion to Anthropic and Microsoft will pledge up to $5 billion, the companies said Tuesday, without sharing further details. Both companies have committed to investing in Anthropic’s next funding round, a person familiar with the matter said.

The announcement underscores the AI ​​industry’s insatiable appetite for computing power as companies race to create systems that can rival or surpass human intelligence. It also brings it closer to major OpenAI-backer Microsoft as well as major AI chip supplier Nvidia, one of the ChatGPIT maker’s biggest rivals.

“We’re increasingly going to be each other’s customers. We’ll use the anthropic model, they’ll use our infrastructure and we’ll go to market together,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a video. He added that OpenAI “remains an important partner.”

Reduce dependency on OpenAI

The move comes just weeks after OpenAI unveiled a sweeping restructuring that moved it further away from its nonprofit roots, giving it greater operational and financial independence.

The startup has since announced a $38 billion deal to buy cloud services from Amazon.com as it reduces reliance on Microsoft. Its CEO Sam Altman has said that OpenAI is committed to spending $1.4 trillion to develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources – enough to power about 25 million American homes.

Still, three years after ChatGPT’s debut, investors are uneasy that the AI ​​boom has outpaced fundamentals. Some business leaders have noted that circular deals – where one partner boosts the revenues of another – increase the risk of bubbles.

“The key feature of the partnership is to reduce the AI ​​economy’s reliance on OpenAI,” DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said of Tuesday’s announcement.

“Microsoft has decided not to rely on a frontier model company. Nvidia also depended to some extent on the success of OpenAI and is now helping to create broader demand.”

Anthropic bets on enterprise to boost growth

Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI staff, Anthropic was recently valued at $183 billion and has become a major rival to the ChatGPT maker, driven by strong adoption of its services by enterprise customers.

Reuters reported last month that Anthropic was projecting to more than double and potentially nearly triple its annual revenue run rate next year to about $26 billion. It has more than 300,000 business and enterprise customers.

As part of Tuesday’s move, Anthropic will work with Nvidia on chips and models to improve performance and scale up to 1 gigawatt of compute using Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin hardware. Industry executives estimate that 1 gigawatt of AI computing could cost between $20 billion and $25 billion.

Microsoft Azure AI Foundry will also provide customers access to the latest cloud models, making the cloud the only frontier model offered across all three major cloud providers.

Amazon will remain Anthropic’s primary cloud provider and training partner.

“These investments demonstrate how the AI ​​industry is consolidating around a few key players,” said eMarketer analyst Jacob Bourne.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)