(May 21): Anthropic PBC has agreed to pay Elon Musk’s SpaceX nearly US$45 billion ($57.57 billion) over the next three years for computing resources as part of an expanded deal to support its Claude artificial intelligence (AI) software, according to a securities filing.
AI developer Anthropic is expected to pay Musk’s firm US$1.25 billion per month through May 2029, with “capacity ramping in May and June 2026 at a reduced fee”, SpaceX disclosed on Wednesday in paperwork related to its initial public offering (IPO). Either party can end the agreement with 90 days’ notice, the filing said.
Anthropic earlier this month said it inked a deal to access more than 300 megawatts of computing capacity from a large SpaceX data centre in Memphis known as Colossus 1, without disclosing the terms. The start-up has since expanded the partnership to include capacity at a second SpaceX data centre, according to a post from Anthropic co-founder and chief compute officer Tom Brown.
Anthropic declined to comment beyond pointing to Brown’s post.
The tie-up brings together two competitors in the race to develop more advanced AI systems. For Anthropic, the partnership offers access to much-needed resources to support a surge in demand as customers flock to use its tools to streamline coding and other tasks.
SpaceX, which merged with Musk’s xAI earlier this year, has been working to bolster revenue from its AI efforts, including by selling access to infrastructure. SpaceX said in the Wednesday regulatory filing that it expects to make similar deals for computing power with other companies as well.
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