OpenAI's custom chip program lead, Clive Chan, has announced his departure from Sam Altman's company to join rival Anthropic. Chan joined OpenAI in January 2024 after leaving Tesla's Dojo team. According to his LinkedIn profile, his designation at OpenAI was Member of Technical Staff, a role he will continue at Anthropic.
Chan's Announcement
Chan shared his decision in a 'Personal update' on X, formerly Twitter. He expressed pride in being part of the custom chip program and gratitude for the team, stating, 'The density of hardware talent on that team is extraordinary, and I don't think there's a better chip design team anywhere.' He added, 'I haven't been able to shake the pull to climb a new mountain from the bottom again.'
Impact on OpenAI
Losing a key chip leader to its biggest rival is seen as a significant setback for OpenAI's custom chip efforts, especially as the company heads toward an IPO. Custom ASICs are among the hottest hardware technologies, with custom chips reportedly growing 44.6% in 2026—three times faster than merchant GPUs. Major tech companies like Google (TPU), Amazon (Trainium), and Microsoft (Maia) have their own custom chips, and OpenAI was building its own program under Chan's leadership.
Chan's Background
Before OpenAI, Chan spent two and a half years at Tesla, where he worked as a senior software engineer on the Autopilot deep learning infrastructure team. He contributed to 'machine learning training ASIC: software framework bring up, data center codesign, power efficient number formats, weekly with CEO.' Tesla's Dojo supercomputer uses custom D1 chips manufactured by TSMC, with the initial system installed in 2022 featuring around 3,000 D1 chips.
Chan's departure follows that of Ganesh Venkataramanan, senior director of autopilot and project lead for Dojo, who left in early December. A week later, Tesla's head of AI infrastructure, Tim Zaman, announced he would join Google DeepMind.
Chan's move to Anthropic underscores the intense competition for AI hardware talent as companies race to develop custom chips for artificial general intelligence (AGI).
