SAN FRANCISCO, April 9 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic is exploring the possibility of designing its own chips, three sources said, as the company and its rivals respond to a shortage of AI chips needed to power and develop more advanced AI systems.

The plans are in early stages and the company may still decide to only buy AI chips and not design any, according to two people with knowledge of the matter and one person briefed on Anthropic's plans. The company has yet to commit to a specific design or put together a dedicated team to work on the project, one of the sources said.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco-based company declined to comment on the article.

Demand for its AI model Claude has accelerated in 2026, with ​the startup's run-rate revenue now surpassing $30 billion, ​up ⁠from about $9 billion at the end of 2025, Anthropic said earlier this week.

Anthropic uses a range of chips, including tensor processing units (TPUs) designed by Alphabet's Google and Amazon's chips to develop and run its AI software and chatbot Claude.

Earlier this week, Anthropic signed a long-term deal with Google and Broadcom AVGO.O, which helps design the TPUs. That deal builds on the company's commitment to invest $50 billion in strengthening U.S. computing infrastructure.

Anthropic's discussions mirror similar efforts underway at large tech companies that are seeking to design their own AI chips, including Meta and OpenAI.

Designing an advanced AI chip can cost roughly half a billion dollars, according to industry sources, as companies need to employ skilled engineers and spend to make sure the manufacturing process has no defects.