Silicon is a promising anode material for lithium ion batteries because of its low discharge potential and high theoretical charge capacity (4200 mA h g⁻¹). However, the poor cycle performance, which arises from the large volume change upon the insertion and extraction of lithium ions, has limited its application. Here, we introduce a composite structure of coaxial carbon–silicon–carbon nanotube arrays in a porous anodic aluminium oxide membrane as a high-capacity and long-life anode. The carbon layer can not only protect silicon from generating a solid electrolyte interphase, but can also function as the current collector. These anode materials have a high first Coulombic efficiency of 90% and high specific capacities (∼4000 mA h g⁻¹ for silicon and more than 600 mA h g⁻¹ for the whole anode). Significantly, using these composite structures we have obtained an area capacity of ∼6 mA h cm⁻², which is larger than commercial graphite anode values.