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Google is quietly building an AI chip empire. Wall Street’s latest estimates suggest the company’s Tensor Processing Unit shipments could nearly triple by 2027, reaching somewhere between 5 million and 9.87 million units depending on which bank you ask.
That’s a dramatic leap from the estimated 3.3 to 4.6 million TPUs projected for 2026.
The numbers behind the ramp
Morgan Stanley recently raised its 2027 TPU shipment forecast to 5 million units, up from a prior estimate of 3 million.
UBS sees a far more aggressive trajectory. The bank anticipates TPU shipments climbing from roughly 4.13 million units in 2023 to 9.87 million by 2027. Supplier-side projections, factoring in Google’s next-generation v7 and v8 chip models, land in the 8.8 to 9 million unit range.
Google itself has projected around 4.3 million TPU shipments for 2026. Depending on how its capital expenditure plans play out, 2027 could see volumes push toward 10 million units.
Google is planning to spend between $175 billion and $185 billion in capital expenditures for 2026 alone.
Intel gets a lifeline, TSMC gets competition
Google has placed an order for over 3 million TPUs with Intel Foundry, with deliveries slated for completion before 2028. TSMC remains Google’s primary manufacturing partner. Total production across both foundries is expected to exceed 6 million units during the 2027-2028 timeframe.
Anthropic’s appetite is driving demand
Anthropic has secured an extensive agreement for multiple gigawatts of TPU capacity starting in 2027, marking a deepened partnership that also involves Broadcom. The projected capacity commitment is around 3.5 gigawatts.
Google Cloud is the vehicle for much of this external TPU access. A new partnership with Blackstone further extends Google’s AI infrastructure reach into enterprise and institutional markets.
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