The AI arms race has taken a dramatic turn from software to physical infrastructure. Anthropic has committed $100 billion to Amazon Web Services over the next decade, securing 5 gigawatts of compute capacity—equivalent to five nuclear power plants. The deal has sent Anthropic's secondary market valuation soaring past $1 trillion, a 163% surge from $380 billion two months ago.
This investment crowns three key players poised to dominate the AI hardware and infrastructure market:
- Marvell Technology (MRVL) – Custom AI chips and networking solutions.
- Alphabet (GOOGL) – Cloud and TPU chips.
- Vertiv Holdings (VRT) – Power and cooling infrastructure for data centers.
Analysts predict these companies could reach trillion-dollar valuations by 2027 as demand for compute power explodes. The shift underscores that the next AI winners may not be software makers but the builders of the underlying physical and chip infrastructure.