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

TAIPEI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - TSMC plans to invest up to $1 billion in two leading artificial intelligence companies, Anthropic and OpenAI. This shows that the Taiwanese chipmaker believes demand for AI technology will remain strong for many years, even as worries grow about the huge amounts of money being spent on AI.

TSMC wants to benefit in two ways: by making equipment and chips for AI systems, and by owning shares in some of the industry's most important AI developers.

On Tuesday, TSMC's board approved up to $500 million to buy shares in Anthropic at the price set for its initial public offering (IPO). It also approved up to $500 million to buy preferred shares in OpenAI.

The investment comes after Anthropic set its IPO share price at $70 to $78 on Tuesday. The company is seeking a value of up to $1.4 trillion. If successful, its stock market launch would be one of the largest ever.

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is also raising $26 billion through a separate private investment deal. Investors supporting this deal include Alphabet's Google, Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft.

TSMC is the world's largest company that makes chips for other companies. It is an important supplier to major AI businesses, including Nvidia. Nvidia makes expensive graphics processors that power many of today's AI models.

Last month, TSMC reported record profits for the sixth quarter in a row. It said demand for chips used in AI was still "extremely strong," although it gave a cautious outlook for 2027.

TSMC expects its revenue for the full year 2026 to grow by about 44%. The company also said demand for its products is greater than the amount it can currently make.

TSMC is increasing its manufacturing capacity. This includes a $265 billion investment in production facilities in Arizona. The company is also looking at possible projects in Texas.

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