The announcement highlights the AI industry’s insatiable appetite for computing power as companies race to build systems that match or exceed human intelligence.
Published November 18, 2025
Microsoft and Nvidia plan to invest in Anthropic under a new partnership that includes a $30 billion commitment by the cloud maker to use Microsoft’s cloud services, the latest high-profile deal to unite major players in the AI industry.
Nvidia will pledge up to $10 billion to Anthropic and up to $5 billion to Microsoft, the companies announced Tuesday, without providing details.
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The companies have committed to investing in Anthropic’s next round of funding, the people said.
The announcement highlights the AI industry’s insatiable appetite for computing power as companies race to build systems that match or exceed human intelligence. It also brings Microsoft, a major OpenAI backer, and Nvidia, a major AI chip supplier, closer to becoming one of the ChatGPT maker’s biggest rivals.
“We’re going to increasingly be each other’s customers. We’re going to use the Anthropic model, they’re going to use our infrastructure, and we’re going to go to market together,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a video. He added that OpenAI “remains an important partner.”
The move comes weeks after OpenAI announced a fundamental reorganization that would move it further away from its nonprofit roots and give it more operational and financial freedom.
The startup then announced a $38 billion deal to acquire cloud services from Amazon.com to reduce its dependence on Microsoft. OpenAI is committed to spending $1.4 trillion to develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources, said Sam Altman, the company’s CEO. That’s enough to power about 25 million U.S. homes.
Still, three years after ChatGPT’s debut, investors are increasingly worried that the AI boom is outpacing the fundamentals. Some business leaders say circular trading, where one partner props up another partner’s earnings, increases the risk of bubbles.
“A key feature of the partnership is to reduce the AI economy’s dependence on OpenAI,” DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said of Tuesday’s announcement.
“Microsoft has decided not to rely on one frontier model company. Nvidia also relies to some extent on OpenAI’s success and is now helping to create broader demand.”
AI industry consolidation
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI staff, Anthropic was recently valued at $183 billion and has become a major rival to the ChatGPT maker due to strong adoption of the service by enterprise customers.
Reuters reported last month that Anthropic expects annual sales to more than double and even triple next year to about $26 billion. We have over 300,000 business and enterprise customers.
As part of Tuesday’s move, Anthropic will work with Nvidia on chips and models to improve performance, committing up to 1 gigawatt of compute using Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin hardware. Industry executives estimate that 1 gigawatt of AI computing could cost between $20 billion and $25 billion.
Microsoft will also provide Azure AI Foundry customers with access to the latest Claude model, making Claude the only Frontier model offered across all three major cloud providers.
“These investments reflect how the AI industry is consolidating around a small number of major players,” said eMarketer analyst Jacob Bourne.
Despite the looming deal, Microsoft shares were down 3.2% in intraday trading. Nvidia is also trading 1.9% lower than when it opened, and Amazon is also down 4%. Tech stocks remain under pressure following cloud service outages early Tuesday. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic are publicly traded.
