Anthropic chip report weighs on semiconductor shares before US holiday

Semiconductor and data-centre-linked shares came under pressure on Thursday after The Information reported that Anthropic was discussing a custom artificial intelligence chip with Samsung, according to CNBC commentator Jim Cramer. Cramer said the move was amplified by light trading before the Fourth of July holiday, with US markets closed on Friday.

The Information reported that Anthropic, the AI model developer, was in talks with Samsung over manufacturing a custom chip. Cramer said the report did not specify whether the potential device would be a graphics processing unit, a central processing unit or another form of accelerator, nor did it describe how Anthropic might use it.

Anthropic told TechCrunch that it uses chips from Google, Amazon and Nvidia for computing power. TechCrunch said the company had nothing further to add about any custom-chip plans.

Selling spread across chip-related shares

Cramer said the report prompted selling in a range of companies tied to the AI hardware trade, including Micron, Seagate, Western Digital, SanDisk, Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia and Intel. He did not cite percentage moves for the stocks.

The market reaction reflected a recurring concern in the AI supply chain: if a leading model company develops more of its own silicon, demand assumptions for existing chip suppliers can be questioned. Alphabet and Amazon already use internally designed chips alongside outside suppliers, and Cramer said it was plausible that Anthropic could consider a similar approach.

Custom silicon requires design capability, manufacturing capacity and packaging, the process of assembling chips and connecting them for high-performance computing. Cramer argued that a new Samsung-manufactured chip programme for Anthropic would require billions of dollars of semiconductor capital equipment and would have to contend with constrained industry capacity. He said Anthropic would need substantial financing to enter that queue, though no such financing plan was reported.

Cramer compares reaction with earlier cybersecurity sell-off

Cramer compared the semiconductor sell-off with an earlier decline in CrowdStrike shares, which he attributed to fears that Anthropic could disrupt cybersecurity. He said CrowdStrike traded in the high $110s, adjusted for a four-for-one split, after falling from $138, then later declined into the $90s before recovering to the $190s.

In that earlier episode, CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz appeared with Cramer and rejected the idea that Anthropic could readily displace established cybersecurity providers. According to Cramer, Kurtz said insurers that influence cybersecurity coverage decisions would not accept a company acting both as a provider of a potentially hackable service and as the defender against cyberattacks.

Cramer said he was now applying a similar framework to chip shares and singled out Intel because of its CPU business, foundry buildout and packaging ambitions. He also said Nvidia remained a preferred company for him, while noting that it frequently faces scepticism in the market.

CNBC disclosed that Cramer’s Charitable Trust held positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Intel, Nvidia, CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks. CNBC also said members of its Investing Club receive trade alerts before Cramer makes trades for the trust and that no specific outcome or profit is guaranteed.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.