TSMC Bets $1B on AI Rivals Anthropic and OpenAI

TSMC (NYSE: TSM) will spend as much as $500 million on Anthropic common shares at the price set in the AI company's initial public offering, and up to $500 million on OpenAI preferred stock. The board signed off on both moves, according to a filing sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on November 10. On the Anthropic side, TSMC pays whatever price Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) land on.

Anthropic published its IPO paperwork on October 26 and began meeting investors on November 9, aiming to price the deal the following week and list before Thanksgiving. The company reportedly targeted raising up to $100 billion at a $2 trillion valuation, though one shareholder pushed for something closer to $1 trillion. Its third-quarter revenue hit $16.8 billion, up 45% from the prior quarter, a slowdown from the triple-digit growth it posted earlier in the year.

OpenAI, meanwhile, reportedly closed about $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation, with the cash sent on Friday, November 6. That round could reach roughly $20 billion in the coming weeks. Cryptopolitan reported that OpenAI initially sought $30 billion or more at a $1.4 trillion valuation, but the target slid as investors got jittery about AI infrastructure spending and possible data-center rules after the U.S. midterm elections. OpenAI plans to go public in 2027, a year President Greg Brockman has called realistic.

The ties run deeper than money. OpenAI already sent chip designs to TSMC to be manufactured in February 2025, part of its push to depend less on Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA).

TSMC's own books are roaring. Third-quarter revenue came in at $46.72 billion, up 50.9% from a year earlier, with net profit of about $23.86 billion, or roughly $0.92 per share. October sales alone totaled about $18.35 billion, up 59.7% from October 2025, and the board declared a quarterly cash dividend of about $0.28 per share. It also approved about $40.9 billion in spending for 2027 and another $500 million for an investment company focused on the chip supply chain.