Shares of Samsung Electronics surged 5.8% to KRW 317,000 after the company joined Anthropic's massive fundraising round as a strategic infrastructure partner — a move that has the market pricing in the possibility of Samsung's largest single foundry contract ever.
• A $20 Billion Prize Would Dwarf Even the Tesla Deal. Samsung could secure over $20 billion (30 trillion won) in orders by producing AI accelerator chips for Anthropic, potentially its largest deal ever, surpassing Tesla.
The previous benchmark was Tesla's roughly $16.5 billion order for autonomous-driving chips.
Anthropic's annualized revenue has surpassed $47 billion , and Reuters reported in April that Anthropic had begun exploring developing its own custom chips, though the effort remains in an early stage. If those chips need a manufacturer, Samsung is positioning itself as the obvious choice.
• Samsung Is the Only Investor With a Chip Factory. Samsung and SK hynix signed on as strategic infrastructure partners alongside Micron in Anthropic's $65 billion Series H round, which valued the AI company at $965 billion. The critical detail: among the three memory partners, only Samsung runs a foundry business — fueling speculation its role could extend beyond supplying memory to fabricating the custom AI chips that power Anthropic's models. That distinction is what turns a modest equity stake into a potential pipeline of manufacturing revenue.
• The Foundry Has Been Bleeding Cash — This Could Change That. Such a deal would hand a new marquee client to a foundry operation that has run at a loss for several years but is now drawing expectations of a return to profit next year.
Samsung's foundry division has set an internal goal to exceed 2 trillion won in operating profit for fiscal 2026 , buoyed by utilization rates exceeding 80% in Q1 2026, a one-year high. Still, Samsung holds just 7.2% of the global foundry market versus TSMC's 69.9% — a gap that no single contract can close.
• The Stock Rally Is Pricing in a Promise, Not a Contract. Samsung's 8.4% gain over five trading sessions reflects broad AI enthusiasm and the Anthropic speculation. But nothing is signed. One industry official cautioned that the initial contract size "may fall short of Tesla," though "considering Anthropic's explosively expanding AI demand, it will become an ultra-large customer." Investors are betting Samsung can convert a strategic relationship into factory orders — a bet that will only pay off if its 2nm process proves competitive with TSMC's.