Microsoft and Nvidia are investing $5 billion (€4.3 billion) and $10 billion (€8.6 billion) respectively in Anthropic. The creator of Claude has committed to spending $30 billion on cloud services with Microsoft. The deal reduces OpenAI’s dependence on the AI industry.
The AI sector is seeing a shift in the balance of power. For years, Microsoft was closely linked to ChatGPT creator OpenAI through substantial investments and collaboration. Microsoft is now investing up to $5 billion in Anthropic, while chipmaker Nvidia is committing up to $10 billion. Both parties are committing to the next round of financing for the ChatGPT competitor.
In exchange, Anthropic promises to spend $30 billion on Microsoft Azure cloud services. “We’re increasingly going to be customers of each other,” says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We will use Anthropic models, they will use our infrastructure and we’ll go to market together.” Nadella emphasizes that OpenAI “remains a critical partner.”
The collaboration with Nvidia involves joint development of chips and models for better performance. Anthropic is committing up to 1 gigawatt of computing power with Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin hardware. 1 gigawatt of AI computing is estimated to cost $20 billion to $25 billion.
Strategic shift in the AI world
Microsoft is giving Azure AI Foundry customers access to the latest Claude models. This makes Claude the only frontier model available from all three major cloud providers. Amazon remains Anthropic’s primary cloud partner and training partner.
The deal comes weeks after OpenAI underwent a major restructuring, further distancing itself from its non-profit roots. OpenAI also signed a historic $300 billion deal with Oracle to purchase cloud services. CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI has committed to $1.4 trillion for 30 gigawatts of computing power.
Three years after ChatGPT’s launch, investors are becoming restless. The AI boom seems to have exceeded its fundamentals. Business leaders point to circular deals in which partners support each other’s revenues, increasing the risk of a bubble.
The AI world is visibly shifting. Where Microsoft and OpenAI once seemed inseparable, both parties are now choosing different paths. Microsoft is diversifying with Anthropic, while OpenAI is focusing on Oracle.
The question remains whether AI models themselves will deliver the revenue model that companies are chasing. Billions are being lost in the race for the best large language models. Earlier this year, DeepSeek showed that smaller players with smaller budgets can deliver comparable performance, raising concerns about the sustainability of current investment levels.