Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), the world's largest memory-chip maker, and SK Hynix (000660.KS), the global leader in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), have joined the Series H funding round of Anthropic, the U.S. developer of the Claude family of AI models, alongside Micron. Anthropic said on May 28 (U.S. time) that it raised $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation — a figure that lifts it past rival OpenAI, last valued at $852 billion (about ₩1,264 trillion) in March, to become the most valuable AI startup in the world (Anthropic; CNBC).
For a portfolio manager, the headline raises one question: is this a small financial stake, or does it lock in real demand for Korea's chip complex — and is the much-quoted "Claude AI chip order" actually signed? The answer splits cleanly into confirmed and speculative.
What is confirmed
Anthropic named Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron as "strategic infrastructure partners," the trio whose memory, storage and logic chips it depends on (Anthropic). The round was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital, with Bloomberg reporting via sources that major VCs each contributed more than $2 billion (Chosun Biz). Existing backers Google and Amazon increased their commitments, on top of a previously committed $15 billion in hyperscaler funding that includes $5 billion from Amazon (Anthropic). The specific amounts Samsung and SK Hynix each invested were not disclosed by Anthropic or the chipmakers.
The strategic logic is the demand signal, not the equity ticket. Anthropic reported run-rate revenue crossing $47 billion (about ₩70.4 trillion) as of the announcement, and has told investors it expects Q2 revenue of $10.9 billion and its first-ever quarterly operating profit, of roughly $559 million, with annualized run-rate topping $50 billion by the end of June (CNBC; Bloomberg). That trajectory underpins compute deals Anthropic disclosed alongside the round — up to five gigawatts of new Amazon capacity and five gigawatts of next-generation Google/Broadcom TPU capacity — each of which converts into memory demand that flows toward SK Hynix and Samsung. SK Hynix led the HBM market with a 57% share in Q4 2025, ahead of Samsung at 22% and Micron at 21%, per Counterpoint Research (Counterpoint Research).
What is not
The widely circulated framing — captured in Yonhap's headline that "Samsung won an AI chip order" — overstates the current state. The Asia Business Daily, a Korean financial daily, reports the foundry angle as analyst expectation, not a signed contract: because Anthropic specifically cited "logic chips" and Samsung is the only one of the three memory partners that runs a foundry, analysts infer Samsung is "highly likely" to manufacture the chips behind Claude (The Asia Business Daily). No agreement has been announced.
The precedent for that optimism is real, however. Samsung's foundry already won contracts for Tesla's next-generation AI5 and AI6 chips and produces an Nvidia inference chip — confirmed wins that establish its credibility even as it holds roughly 7.2% of the foundry market against TSMC's 69.9% (The Asia Business Daily).
The rally and the open question
The news lands amid a sharp re-rating of both Korean chip names. By May 29, Samsung's market capitalization had reached about $1.316 trillion (₩1,970 trillion) and SK Hynix's $1.087 trillion (₩1,625 trillion), placing them 14th and 15th globally and closing in on Bitcoin's $1.47 trillion (about ₩2,200 trillion), per CompaniesMarketCap data cited by Chosun Biz; on May 11 Bitcoin ranked 11th and Samsung 14th (Chosun Biz).
The data point that would convert speculation into substance is specific: a named foundry partner from Anthropic, or confirmation in Samsung's next quarterly disclosure of a new logic-chip customer. Until then, the confirmed prize for Korea is memory demand from a customer now on a $47 billion run-rate and approaching $50 billion — with the logic-chip order still a thesis, not a fact.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Figures are sourced from the cited reports; currency conversions use rates paired in the Korean-language source coverage (roughly ₩1,497 per U.S. dollar). Readers should conduct their own due diligence.
