What the board decided
The TSMC board of directors gave the go-ahead to two separate transactions of half a billion dollars each, according to Reuters. The first concerns the purchase of OpenAI preferred shares reserved for large investors, up to a maximum of $500 million. The second provides for the subscription of Anthropic ordinary shares at the price expected for its listing, for an equivalent amount. Overall, the commitment may reach $1 billion.
The significant point is not only the figure but the nature of the transaction: TSMC is not merely supplying production capacity to the two artificial intelligence companies but directly entering their equity. Until now, the Taiwanese manufacturer had benefited from AI data center chip demand as a supplier, without taking equity positions in end customers.
The manufacturing context
TSMC physically manufactures most of the chips designed by Nvidia for AI data center workloads. Its factories also produce most of Apple's custom chips for iPhone, Mac and desktop computers, as well as the AI computing server the U.S. company has planned. Most of its plants are in Taiwan, but TSMC also operates in Japan and China, has an expanding hub in Arizona and is building a new fab in Germany.
OpenAI and Anthropic, for their part, buy large quantities of AI hardware from TSMC itself for their data center projects. It is this intertwining between supplier and client-investors that makes the deal significant and, according to analysts cited by The Wall Street Journal, potentially problematic.
The circular financing issue
The Wall Street Journal reports that the investment could give markets a confidence boost at a time when the AI sector is showing signs of strain. Analysts, however, warn that circular finance among investors, suppliers and customers makes it harder to assess real demand for AI-related hardware and services.
The phenomenon is not new: TSMC is joining a trend already established during the AI boom. According to the material, Nvidia has invested $30 billion in OpenAI and $10 billion in Anthropic, as well as tens of billions in many other AI and robotics companies. Against these numbers, TSMC's commitment appears more modest, but the mechanism is the same.
The resources available
TSMC can afford the deal. Sustained demand for AI chips has allowed it to report six consecutive quarters of record profits. In the quarter between July and September 2026, according to Reuters, the company earned more than $23 billion.
The actual terms of the two transactions remain to be verified: Anthropic's placement price has not yet been defined, and the material does not indicate closing timelines or any clauses. The picture reflects what the cited press reported and does not include official confirmations from the companies involved.
