Anthropic Bolsters Chip Development Efforts with Google Veteran Hire

Anthropic has made a significant move in its efforts to develop custom semiconductors by hiring former Google executive Amir Salek. As the company expands its in-house chip push, Salek joins Anthropic's compute team and will report to James Bradbury.

Salek previously led the Tensor Processing Unit business at Google until 2022 and was involved in delivering the first seven generations of TPU chips. His expertise will be crucial as Anthropic seeks to develop its own custom silicon, which could help address chip supply constraints and design hardware tailored to its specific requirements.

The company has already made deals with several suppliers, including Nvidia, Google, and Amazon, but is also expanding its access to computing infrastructure through agreements with chipmakers and data centre operators. Anthropic's agreement with UK-based chip startup Fractile for an initial order worth about $250 million is a significant step in this direction.