TLDR
- Elon Musk says SpaceX’s deal to provide compute to Anthropic is a 180-day lease, not a long-term contract
- SpaceX included a mutual 90-day cancellation clause after the initial term
- Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion per month for access to SpaceX’s Colossus data centers
- The short lease term was SpaceX’s request, not Anthropic’s
- SpaceX is preparing for a June IPO targeting a valuation of up to $2 trillion
Elon Musk said on Thursday that SpaceX’s deal to supply computing power to AI startup Anthropic is only a 180-day lease. He made the comments in a post on X, clarifying an earlier disclosure in SpaceX’s IPO filing.
As the recently expanded partnership with @AnthropicAI demonstrates, @SpaceX is offering AI compute as a service at significant scale.
We are in discussions with other companies to do the same.
Over time, especially with orbital data centers, we expect to serve AI at extremely…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2026
The IPO filing had described Anthropic making monthly payments of $1.25 billion to SpaceX until May 2029. That suggested a multi-year agreement worth nearly $45 billion in total. Musk pushed back on that reading.
“SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it’s possible that may be what happens,” Musk wrote.
The deal gives Anthropic access to more than 300 megawatts of compute capacity from SpaceX’s Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Anthropic also expanded the agreement to include the upcoming Colossus 2 center.
After the initial 180-day period, either side can exit with 90 days’ notice. Musk said that structure was SpaceX’s idea.
“The short term was our request, not Anthropic’s,” he said.
Why SpaceX Wants Flexibility
Musk said SpaceX may need the computing capacity back if internal demand gets tight. He added that SpaceX would give Anthropic a fair exit if that happened.
“We won’t leave them hanging and will provide a reasonable off-ramp, but if compute gets super tight I said we might need it back at some point,” Musk said.
Last week, Musk posted that SpaceX was in talks with other companies about offering AI computing as a service. That suggests the company is looking to build a broader business around its data center infrastructure.
SpaceX’s AI segment lost around $2.5 billion from operations in the first quarter of this year, on revenue of $818 million. The company merged its AI arm, xAI, into SpaceX last year. xAI recorded a loss of $6.36 billion in 2025.
Leasing compute to outside companies like Anthropic is one way SpaceX can generate revenue from its data center buildout. xAI’s Grok chatbot has far fewer users than competing products from Anthropic and OpenAI.
SpaceX IPO on the Horizon
SpaceX filed for an IPO last week and is aiming to raise $75 billion. The company is targeting a valuation between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion, with the offering expected in June.
The Colossus compute deal with Anthropic featured in that filing as a revenue source. Musk’s clarification on the lease length came in direct response to social media discussion of that filing.
SpaceX and Anthropic did not respond to media requests for comment outside business hours.
Anthropic will pay a smaller monthly amount in May and June 2026, with full payments beginning later in the year.
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