Concerning details about Anthropic’s relationship with AMD came to light after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that hyperscalers are capping Anthropic’s AI compute capacity.

Creatively, one of the ways the Claude maker has worked around these limitations is to commit to acquire billions of dollars worth of AMD’s AI computational services while AMD commits to buy billions in Anthropic stock.

Circularly, Anthropic’s IPO prospectus, seeking a generous valuation, shows AMD pledging up to $5 billion for purchases of Anthropic’s stock in the same filing as Anthropic commits to acquire AI compute services from AMD in excess of $20 billion.

Needless to say, contractors usually render services for payment, not reinvest that money back into their client’s equity. Nonetheless, AMD framed the arrangement as a “strategic partnership” aimed at locking in a marquee client. 

Using different language, a skeptical person might explain the two deals as a de facto rebate via share buybacks.

For whatever reason, the unusual deal covers up to two gigawatts of AMD’s Instinct MI450 chips starting in the first half of 2027. “We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Anthropic,” AMD’s CEO said. 

That was certainly one way to describe an investment commitment of $5 billion back into its customer.

Conveniently, news of AMD’s original $5 billion “strategic partnership” arrived in July, months before the world read its September IPO prospectus detailing how Anthropic has committed to acquire over $20 billion worth of AMD’s AI compute capacity.

AMD’s latest quarterly report discloses “investment commitments of up to $5.0 billion, subject to certain contingencies, which are expected to be made through fiscal year 2028.”

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