Anthropic Hires Ex-Google TPU Lead Amir Salek to Build Custom Silicon Team
According to Bloomberg, Anthropic has hired Amir Salek, the former head of Google's TPU program, to join its compute team reporting to compute platform lead James Bradbury. The move marks the formation of an internal Custom Silicon team as Anthropic seeks greater control over the hardware running its models.
Confirmed
- Salek led the first seven generations of Google's TPU between 2013 and 2022, and is widely described as the "father of TPU" by Chinese tech media.
- After leaving Google, Salek worked at Cerberus Capital Management.
- Per @新智元, Anthropic also previously hired Clive Chan, a core member of OpenAI's in-house chip project.
- Per @创业邦, Anthropic currently sources chips mainly from Nvidia, Google and Amazon.
Why it matters
- Leading AI labs are pushing down the hardware stack: custom silicon can cut dependence on external suppliers like Nvidia and allow optimization for in-house models.
- Salek's decade-long TPU experience across seven generations significantly boosts the credibility of Anthropic's custom chip effort.
Unconfirmed
- The chip's product form, timeline, and production approach (fully in-house vs. co-designed) remain undisclosed; posts only say Anthropic "aims to develop custom AI chips."
2026-08-22 ~ 2026-08-23 · 6 related posts
Primary sources
- [source] Anthropic hires Google TPU founder Amir Salek to lead chip efforts — dinabass · 2026-08-22
- Anthropic hires former Google TPU head Amir Salek to boost in-house chip development — nmasc_ · 2026-08-22
- Anthropic Hires Google TPU Founder for Custom Silicon Push — 新智元 · 2026-08-22
- Anthropic hires ex-TPU leader Amir Salek to develop custom AI chips — Pablomiller · 2026-08-22