TSMC, the chipmaker AI runs on, will put up to $1 billion into Anthropic and OpenAI

TSMC, the Taiwanese company that makes Nvidia’s AI chips, is buying into the two best-known AI labs that run on them. Its board approved spending up to $500 million on Anthropic shares at the price set in its IPO and up to $500 million on OpenAI preferred stock, according to resolutions it filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Two $500 million stakes, both capped

The board met on November 10 in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Its resolution backs investments in “Anthropic, PBC at its per share initial public offering price in an amount not to exceed US$500 million to acquire Anthropic’s common shares” and in “OpenAI Group PBC in an amount not to exceed US$500 million to acquire OpenAI’s preferred stock”.

Both figures are ceilings, not completed deals. TSMC hasn’t said how many shares it will end up with, what stake that would be or when either purchase will close. The same meeting also approved up to $500 million to set up a new investment company that will make “strategic investments in the semiconductor industry and related ecosystem”.

A small slice of Anthropic’s IPO

The Anthropic half was already in the Claude maker’s own paperwork. Its amended IPO prospectus, filed the same day, names TSMC Partners, Ltd. as one of seven chip and cloud companies buying $26 billion of non-voting Class N common stock in a private placement at the IPO price. At the $74 midpoint of the $70 to $78 range, TSMC would get 6,756,756 shares for about $500 million.

That makes it the smallest buyer in the group. Google and Nvidia are putting in $10 billion each, AMD $2.5 billion, and Broadcom, Micron and Microsoft $1 billion each. The placement only goes ahead if the IPO does, and closes straight after Anthropic lists on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, which CNBC expects in mid-November.

OpenAI’s round gets a chipmaker

The OpenAI deal is newer. TSMC’s filing doesn’t say what price it will pay or whether the shares are part of the funding round OpenAI is raising at a $1.25 trillion valuation. OpenAI closed the first part of that round, about $11 billion, on November 6, according to Bloomberg, and expects to take it to as much as $20 billion in the coming weeks. Neither company has commented on the investment beyond the filing.

At $500 million, TSMC’s cheque would be a small part of either deal. What stands out is who is writing it: the world’s biggest contract chipmaker taking a stake in both of the leading US labs at once, rather than picking a side.

Anthropic says it can’t always get enough chips

Anthropic’s prospectus is blunt about how much it leans on TSMC. In its list of risks, it says “the majority of the world’s most advanced chip manufacturing capacity is concentrated in Taiwan, primarily at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company”.

It goes further: TSMC “has, at times, been unable to fully satisfy market demand for chip manufacturing capacity, and as a result, we have not always been able to obtain sufficient quantities of chips on a timely basis.” Any disruption to supply from Taiwan, whether from earthquakes, power or water shortages or tension with China, “would adversely affect” the business, it adds.

The deal also adds another turn to a loop of AI money. Nvidia is buying Anthropic shares and sells Anthropic the chips TSMC makes, and TSMC is now buying shares too. Suppliers investing in their own customers is the kind of deal that has investors asking whether AI is a bubble.

A $41 billion spending plan on the same day

The investments came alongside TSMC’s third-quarter accounts. Revenue was NT$1,494.24 billion (about $45.6 billion) and net income NT$763.06 billion (about $23.3 billion). The board set a NT$9 a share quarterly dividend, payable on April 8, 2027, and approved about $40.93 billion of capital spending, mainly on new advanced chip and packaging capacity, new fabs and 2027 research.

Why it matters

TSMC is the one supplier almost every AI lab depends on, and it now has a financial stake in how the two leading US labs do, not just in how many chips they order. Its stake is small next to Google’s and Nvidia’s, but it ties the company at the bottom of the AI supply chain more tightly to the labs at the top, just as Anthropic heads to market.

Sources: TSMC, Form 6-K, Board of Directors meeting resolutions (SEC, November 10, 2026); Anthropic, PBC, Amendment No. 2 to Form S-1 (SEC, November 10, 2026).