Anthropic discussed acquiring artificial intelligence chip startup MatX for approximately $7 billion as the AI company seeks to strengthen its in-house hardware development, according to people briefed on the matter who spoke to Reuters.
The acquisition discussions have since shifted towards a potential partnership, according to a third person familiar with the matter. The reasons the acquisition talks are no longer active could not be determined.
The discussions highlight Anthropic’s efforts to secure the resources and specialised talent needed to develop its own AI chips and reduce reliance on third-party hardware suppliers.
MatX, founded by former Google engineers who worked on tensor processing units, is now seeking to raise new capital at a valuation of about $4 billion, one of the people said.
Anthropic’s fast-growing AI business could benefit from custom-designed chips tailored to its computing requirements. The company explored acquiring MatX as a means of bringing chip design capabilities in-house and accelerating its development of proprietary hardware.
The potential acquisition, valued at about $7 billion, would have represented a significant expansion of Anthropic’s efforts to build greater control over the hardware supporting its AI operations.
The discussions have not resulted in a completed acquisition, with the companies instead considering a possible partnership.
