Anthropic Hires Google TPU Founder to Lead Custom AI Chip Program
Summary
Anthropic hires Amir Salek, founder of Google's TPU program and former Nvidia chip leader, to build a custom in-house AI silicon operation designed specifically for Claude's workloads, while maintaining existing hardware partnerships with Nvidia, Google, and Amazon.
Key Points
- Anthropic hires Amir Salek, the engineer who founded Google's custom-chip program and oversaw its first seven TPU generations, to lead its new in-house silicon operation under compute head James Bradbury.
- Salek brings decades of semiconductor leadership experience, including founding Nvidia's system-on-a-chip design organization, and is now tasked with building a repeatable chip program tailored to Claude's AI workloads.
- Anthropic's push into custom silicon does not replace its existing hardware partnerships — the company continues training Claude on Nvidia GPUs, Google TPUs, and Amazon Trainium chips, with agreements in place for up to one million Google TPUs and multiple gigawatts of next-generation capacity through 2027.