AI’s Taiwan problem: Why Anthropic is worried about its chip supply

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has warned that depending on Taiwan for advanced chips could threaten its ability to develop and run AI models. This highlights a supply problem that spending money and investing in data centres alone may not solve.

In its registration statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Anthropic identified the heavy concentration of advanced chip production in Taiwan, mainly at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), as a major risk to its business.

The company said problems caused by political tensions, military conflict, natural disasters or failures in important infrastructure could seriously disrupt the world's supply of advanced chips. The effects could last for years because building new factories and making sure they can produce the required chips takes time.

This warning comes as AI companies compete for computing power to train more advanced models and serve more customers. Anthropic, which develops the Claude family of AI models, needs advanced chips to keep growing.

“Most of the world's capacity to make the most advanced chips is concentrated in Taiwan, mainly at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company,” Anthropic said in its filing.

The company also revealed that TSMC has sometimes been unable to meet all the demand for its chip manufacturing services. As a result, Anthropic has not always been able to get enough chips within the time it needs them.

Why Anthropic is worried about TSMC

TSMC is a key company in the global chip industry. It makes advanced chips designed by other companies, including chips used for AI computing. This makes TSMC an important link between the companies that design AI processors and the systems needed to run AI models.

Anthropic said this concentration creates several risks. These include tensions between Taiwan and China, military conflict, trade restrictions, tariffs, economic pressure, a blockade and natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons.

Problems with Taiwan’s electricity supply, water supply or other essential infrastructure could also disrupt chip production.

The risk is not limited to a factory closing for a short time. Anthropic warned that a major disruption could have long-lasting effects because advanced chip factories take a long time to build and prepare before they can produce enough chips that meet the required standards.

“Any military conflict, tariffs and trade restrictions, economic pressure, blockade, natural disaster, or other event affecting Taiwan could seriously disrupt the global supply of advanced chips,” the company said.

Why moving chip production outside Taiwan will take time

The US and other economies have tried to increase chip production outside Taiwan. The goal is to spread production across more places and reduce dependence on one region. However, Anthropic said these efforts are still at an early stage and may not add enough production capacity to significantly reduce the risks in the near future.

“Efforts to establish enough capacity to make advanced chips outside Taiwan, including in the United States, are still at an early stage,” the company said in the filing.

Until other locations can produce enough chips, companies that depend on advanced processors will remain at risk from disruptions affecting Taiwan and TSMC.

Anthropic also pointed to a current shortage of manufacturing capacity. It said strong demand for advanced chip production has sometimes prevented TSMC from meeting the market's needs. This has affected how many chips Anthropic could get on time.

The company warned that limits on, or delays in, supplies from Taiwan or TSMC could harm its business, financial health and operating results.

Chips are not the only limit on AI growth

Anthropic’s filing also explains that developing AI requires more than advanced processors. Computing power also depends on memory chips, information technology equipment, electricity and data centre facilities.

The company said the supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), an important part of powerful AI accelerators, is concentrated among SK hynix, Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology.

These companies are increasing production, but Anthropic warned that there is no guarantee they will expand supply quickly enough to meet demand. Large customers or competitors that reserve large amounts of production capacity in advance could make it harder for other buyers to get what they need.

This creates another possible supply problem in addition to advanced chip production. Even when AI processors are available, shortages of memory or other essential parts could limit how much computing equipment companies can put into use.

Electricity supplies and available data centre space also affect how quickly new computing resources can start working. Anthropic said limits across these connected parts of the supply chain could make it harder to get computing power in the amount, at the cost and at the speed it needs.

What the warning means for Anthropic’s IPO

Anthropic filed its registration statement on October 26 for a planned initial public offering (IPO) of its Class A common stock. The company has applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol ANT. The number of shares it will offer and the price range had not been decided when it filed the initial statement.

The risks described in the filing help potential investors understand the business problems that could affect Anthropic’s growth and financial results.

Access to computing power is especially important for an AI developer. A shortage of computing resources or higher infrastructure costs could slow the development of new models, limit the expansion of services and make it harder to meet customer demand.

Anthropic said limits on the supply of chips, memory, electricity and data centre infrastructure could raise the cost of getting computing resources. They could also limit how much it can invest in its models, platform and applications.

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First Published:Oct 27, 2026, 14:33:06 IST