Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has approved potential investments of up to $500 million each in OpenAI and Anthropic, deepening the chipmaker’s financial exposure to two major developers of generative artificial intelligence models.

TSMC’s board approved the purchase of up to $500 million of OpenAI preferred stock and up to $500 million of Anthropic common shares at the price of a future initial public offering, according to a November 10 board statement.

The approvals set maximum investment amounts and do not mean the full purchases have been completed. The Anthropic investment is tied to an IPO price, making its execution dependent on a future public offering and other conditions. TSMC did not disclose additional terms or an investment timetable.

The board also approved an investment of up to $500 million in a company that will invest in the semiconductor ecosystem. TSMC did not name the vehicle in the statement or provide details on its target portfolio.

The decisions connect the world’s largest contract chipmaker more directly with companies driving demand for advanced AI computing. OpenAI and Anthropic rely on data-center infrastructure built around high-performance processors, many of which are manufactured by TSMC for chip designers including Nvidia and other customers.

TSMC has generally focused its capital spending on manufacturing rather than taking large stakes in application-layer technology companies. The proposed investments would add a financial relationship with two model developers while TSMC continues expanding advanced process and packaging capacity in Taiwan and overseas.

At the same meeting, the board approved approximately $40.93 billion in capital appropriations for advanced and specialty process capacity, advanced packaging, facilities systems and research and development. The company said the spending supports long-term capacity plans based on market demand forecasts.

Demand from AI accelerators has become an important growth driver for TSMC, but the company remains exposed to the investment cycles of cloud providers and chip designers. The OpenAI and Anthropic approvals add another form of exposure while remaining small relative to TSMC’s manufacturing investment program. TSMC also approved third-quarter financial statements and routine capital and personnel matters.

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