Anthropic PBC has signed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bolster its computing capabilities and meet growing demand for its Claude artificial intelligence software.
Anthropic plans to access more than 300 megawatts of computing capacity from a large SpaceX data center in Memphis known as Colossus 1, the companies said Wednesday. Anthropic said the partnership will “substantially” increase its computing resources and allow it to raise usage limits for its AI products.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
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The arrangement brings together two competitors in the race to develop more advanced AI systems. Anthropic has seen demand for its products grow rapidly in recent months as more customers turn to its tools to streamline programming processes and other tasks. In addition to SpaceX, Anthropic also uses Alphabet Inc.’s Google for chips and cloud services.
Although Musk’s xAI still lags behind in programming, the AI startup — now part of SpaceX — has outpaced some competitors in building data centers and accumulating Nvidia chips. xAI’s computing deals could position the company as an infrastructure provider and boost its revenue as SpaceX prepares to go public.
Musk’s company had previously agreed to provide part of its computing resources to AI programming startup Cursor, as part of a collaboration agreement between the two companies. xAI has been building data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi, and has raised capital to lease chips for those facilities.
SpaceX also recently estimated in a local filing that a chip factory it plans to build with Tesla Inc. will cost at least $55 billion. The “next-generation, vertically integrated semiconductor and advanced computing manufacturing facility” could be located in Grimes County, Texas, according to a public notice. The estimated total investment could reach US$119 billion if additional phases of the project are completed.
As part of the new agreement, Anthropic said it has also “expressed interest in partnering with SpaceX to develop several gigawatts of in-orbit AI computing capacity.” Musk has previously stated that he wants to put data centers in space and harness solar energy.
