TSMC to invest up to $1 billion in Anthropic, OpenAI

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TAIPEI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - TSMC 2330.TW plans to invest up to $1 billion across leading AI developers Anthropic and OpenAI, highlighting the Taiwanese chipmaker's confidence in long-term demand for the technology even as concerns grow about soaring AI spending.

The company is positioning itself to benefit not only from supplying AI infrastructure, but also from owning stakes in some of the industry's most influential developers.

TSMC's board approved on Tuesday an investment of up to $500 million to acquire shares in Anthropic at its initial public offering price, and an investment of up to $500 million to acquire preferred stock in OpenAI.

The move comes after Anthropic ANT.O on Tuesday priced its initial public offering at $70 to $78 per share, seeking a valuation of up to $1.4 trillion in what would be one of the largest stock market debuts on record.

The Claude maker is also raising $26 billion through a separate private placement backed by investors, including Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google, Nvidia NVDA.O, AMD AMD.O and Microsoft MSFT.O.

TSMC is the world's largest contract chipmaker and a critical supplier to leading AI firms, including Nvidia, whose pricey graphics processors underpin many of today's AI models.

Last month, TSMC reported a sixth consecutive quarter of record profit and said demand for AI-related chips remained "extremely robust," even as it adopted a cautious outlook for 2027.

The company expects full-year 2026 revenue growth of about 44% and said demand continues to outstrip its manufacturing capacity.

TSMC is also expanding production, including a $265 billion investment in manufacturing facilities in Arizona and an evaluation of potential projects in Texas.

(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee in Taipei and Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru, Editing by David Goodman and Joyjeet Das)