Latham has bought its own Nvidia AI hardware, allowing it to run AI models and keep client data within its systems.
The investment comes as Big Law ramps up AI spending, with rival Kirkland committing $500 million to AI earlier this year.
Latham & Watkins has purchased multiple servers containing Nvidia GPUs, the powerful chips used to run AI models, allowing it to run and customise models within its own systems.
The Financial Times, which first reported details of the investment, said it was the first public example of a major law firm buying its own AI hardware and fine-tuning models.
Most law firms have so far left the underlying computing infrastructure to others, buying AI through platforms such as Harvey and Legora or building their own tools using models and computing power from external providers.
Latham said one attraction is keeping sensitive client information within the firm's own systems.
“Sometimes we may have information that is so sensitive, client information that we really want to protect, we don’t want to put it to any cloud vendor,” chief information officer Rene Mendoza told the FT.
Taking AI in-house
Latham has been working on the strategy for several years. Members of its AI strategy committee told Bloomberg Law that the firm decided to develop its own Nvidia server infrastructure three years ago and has been buying servers over the same period.
Owning the infrastructure allows Latham to customise AI models and run them without relying on an external provider, although the firm will remain a customer of outside AI companies.
Latham selected Harvey for a firmwide rollout last year, and Mendoza told Bloomberg Law that the firm’s Nvidia move is not intended to lessen its reliance on the legal AI platform.
Cost appears to be another factor behind the investment. Mendoza told the FT that the firm wanted to have "flexibility" as he expects AI consumption costs to rise. Legora has recently moved to consumption-based pricing for its flagship agentic product, while Harvey is understood to have considered a similar model.
Big Law's AI spending
Latham's investment comes as other major firms step up spending on their own AI technology.
Chief rival Kirkland & Ellis announced a $500 million AI investment earlier this year alongside a partnership with data intelligence company Palantir to build an in-house platform initially focused on private equity fund formation work.
Latham generated $8.3 billion in revenue last year, making it the world's second-largest law firm behind Kirkland, which topped $10 billion. Their scale and profitability give both considerably more firepower to experiment with expensive technology than most of their competitors.
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