Anthropic Pays SpaceX $1.25B Monthly for Compute

Anthropic has agreed to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for access to cloud computing infrastructure, according to a regulatory filing [1]. The deal provides the maker of Claude with GPUs at SpaceX’s Colossus and Colossus II data centers, which were originally built for the company’s own xAI unit [1]. This arrangement allows SpaceX to monetize excess capacity while Anthropic gains the resources needed to support its growing customer base [2].

Key takeaways

• Anthropic will pay SpaceX $1.25 billion monthly through May 2029 for cloud computing access [1].
• The deal utilizes capacity at the Colossus and Colossus II data centers, which SpaceX built for its xAI unit [1].
• SpaceX reported significant losses recently, including $4.9 billion last year, partly due to heavy spending on AI technologies [1].
• Elon Musk has previously criticized Anthropic as "evil" and "Misanthropic" despite the new partnership [3].

A Massive Compute Lease Agreement

The agreement grants Anthropic access to GPUs located at the Colossus and Colossus II facilities, which straddle Tennessee and Mississippi and boast over one gigawatt of computing power [1]. While SpaceX rushed to construct these sites for its Grok chatbot, the company determined it did not require all the available capacity [1]. Consequently, Anthropic will utilize the infrastructure for inference tasks, allowing it to double rate limits for its Claude Code product and remove peak-hour restrictions for subscribers [2, 3]. The contract includes a discounted rate for May and June before the standard monthly fee takes effect, though either party may terminate the agreement with 90 days' notice [1, 2].

Financial Pressures and Governance Risks

The partnership emerges as SpaceX pursues what could be the largest initial public offering in history, aiming to raise $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation [1]. The filing reveals that SpaceX, including X and xAI, generated $4.7 billion in revenue but lost $4.3 billion in the first quarter of this year, following a $4.9 billion loss in the previous year driven by heavy spending on AI and rocket development [1]. Specifically, losses from AI operations ballooned to over $6 billion last year due to cloud costs and GPU depreciation [2]. As the company prepares for its public debut, advocacy groups and pension fund leaders have raised alarms about its governance structure, noting that Musk is the only person who can fire himself and will maintain outsized voting power [1].

Why it matters

This deal highlights how access to compute has become