Nvidia’s grip on AI chips weakens as Microsoft turns to AMD and Anthropic may follow

Microsoft plans to use more AMD AI chips in its Azure cloud. The expanded partnership centers on AMD’s new Helios platform, which is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2026. Helios is designed to run large AI models and give Azure customers an alternative to Nvidia’s dominant GPU systems.

AMD CEO Lisa Su called the partnership a major milestone. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said customers need more choices for AI infrastructure. Nvidia still has considerable pricing power, but it faces growing competition from AMD and custom TPUs made by other companies. AMD could also land another major customer. A public GitHub profile belonging to an AMD director suggests that Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is testing AMD hardware. According to SemiAnalysis, AMD gave Anthropic its highest priority rating, putting it on par with major customers such as Meta. Anthropic is still testing the hardware. AMD may confirm the partnership at its upcoming “Advancing AI” conference if its engineering team resolves the remaining concerns about software quality. OpenAI also has a partnership with AMD. Follow The Decoder for AI news, background stories and expert analyses.