Elon Musk contradicts SpaceX filing on Anthropic's AI compute lease duration

How long is Anthropic's lease with SpaceX? Opinions vary.

Earlier this month, xAI signed a major compute deal with Anthropic, pledging billions of dollars a month for exclusive use of the company's Colossus cluster. It was a coup for both companies, giving xAI some much-needed revenue and helping Anthropic catch up in the never-ending race for compute. But this morning on X, Elon Musk downplayed exactly how much SpaceX had committed to the deal. "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it's possible that may be what happens," he said, replying to a user. "This is a 180 day lease with 90 day notice mutual cancellation thereafter. The short term was our request, not Anthropic's. 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's statement directly contradicts SpaceX's recent S-1 filing, which confirms the standard 90-day cancellation but presents the deal as a three-year agreement. Page F-62 of the filing reads: On May 3, 2026, the Company entered into a cloud services agreement with Anthropic PBC, an AI research and development public benefit corporation, with respect to access to compute capacity. Pursuant to this agreement, the customer has agreed to pay a monthly fee through May 2029, with capacity ramping in May 2026 at a reduced fee. The agreement may be terminated by either party upon 90 days' notice. The customer will retain ownership and intellectual property rights in its content, AI models, and related data. The key point here is that Anthropic "has agreed to pay a monthly fee through May 2029" -- a pretty straightforward description of a three-year lease. The same language is repeated on F-96 and in slightly varied form ("the customer has agreed to pay us $1.25 billion per month through May 2029") on pages 13 and 146, so it's not as if there was a typo. xAI did not respond to a request for clarification. Maybe we can quibble about whether Anthropic agreeing to pay for a service means the same thing as SpaceX agreeing to provide that service, but that's not usually what "lease" means. And why have a one-way lock-in if either party can terminate the deal with three months' notice anyway? I don't have the deal in front of me, so I don't know what it says -- and neither SpaceX nor Anthropic is saying anything about the duration of the deal in their announcements. Still, there should be a pretty straightforward fact of the matter here, and it's not the sort of thing you want to make false statements about during a company's quiet period. As always, we should note that the SEC probably will not do anything -- and even if they did, Elon probably wouldn't care. But this sort of does seem like a material misrepresentation made while marketing a security, which is bad karma at the very least. Sean O'Kane contributed reporting to this article.

Musk says SpaceX agreed only six-month Colossus AI lease to Anthropic

May 28 (Reuters) - SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday the IPO-bound company had only agreed to lease its Colossus AI training data center clusters to Anthropic for six months, though he added it was "possible" the arrangement could extend for multiple years. "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it's possible that may be what happens," Musk said in a post on X. Earlier this year, SpaceX ⁠inked deals for Anthropic to pay it $1.25 billion a month to use compute capacity from its Colossus and Colossus II data center clusters in Memphis, Tennessee through May 2029. SpaceX, which filed for IPO last week, said in the regulatory filing that both companies could terminate the agreements with a 90-day notice. The filing did not make any mention of the six-month lease. SpaceX and Anthropic did not immediately respond to a Reuters ⁠request for comment outside regular business hours. The agreement is a 180-day lease with a mutual 90-day cancellation notice thereafter, Musk said. "The short term was our request, not Anthropic's," he said on X, referring to the Colossus deal. "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," ⁠the billionaire added. Last week, Musk posted on X that SpaceX was in discussions with other companies about "offering AI compute as a service at ⁠significant scale." SpaceX's AI segment lost about $2.5 billion from operations in the March quarter, on segment revenue of $818 million, according to its IPO filing. Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Elon Musk says SpaceX did not commit to long-term Colossus lease with Anthropic

Elon Musk clarified that SpaceX's lease of its Colossus AI training data center clusters to Anthropic is for six months, not multiple years as previously indicated. Musk stated on X that the short-term agreement was SpaceX's request, with a mutual 90-day cancellation notice possible thereafter. He added that SpaceX might reclaim the compute if it becomes critically scarce. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday the IPO-bound company had only agreed to lease its Colossus AI training data ⁠center ⁠clusters to Anthropic for six months, not multiple years as previously suggested. "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it's ⁠possible that may be what happens," Musk said in ⁠a post on X. He added that the agreement is a 180-day lease with a mutual 90-day cancellation notice thereafter. "The short term was our request, not Anthropic's. 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," he said.

Elon Musk Says 'Let's Not Get Carried Away' As Ark's Brett Winton Highlights Anthropic's Massive SpaceXAI

Massive Compute Deal Sparks Debate The discussion began after Winton said on X that Anthropic is effectively paying SpaceXAI about $24 billion per gigawatt of AI computing capacity, with infrastructure costs estimated near $29 billion per gigawatt. He suggested that if the arrangement lasts around five years, it could translate into more than $50 billion in cumulative pre-tax cash flow. In a follow-up post, he wrote, "The above assumes that SpaceX is renting out its GB200/300 fleet." The analyst noted that if the agreement instead covers all of Colossus I -- primarily composed of H100 and H200 chips -- along with portions of Colossus II equipped with GB200 and GB300 systems, the economics would be even stronger, potentially generating more than $60 billion in gross cash flow over five years. Musk Pushes Back On Long-Term Assumptions Musk responded by cautioning against overinterpreting the figures. "Let's not get carried away. This is a short-term deal," he wrote. Ark's Winton Defends Infrastructure Strategy Winton countered that while artificial intelligence software will ultimately deliver higher margins than infrastructure services, the current phase of the industry still depends heavily on large-scale compute buildouts. "AI software ultimately much better margin than infra-as-a-service," he said, adding that infrastructure remains a critical foundation for scaling advanced AI systems. IPO Filing Reveals $1.25 Billion Compute Deal In May, SpaceX moved forward with its long-awaited IPO process, filing public documents after a confidential submission on April 1 and releasing its prospectus on May 20. The filing showed that Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for compute capacity across SpaceX's AI training clusters, Colossus and Colossus II. The deal includes a 90-day termination option for either party, with reduced fees during the May and June ramp-up period. Separately, Anthropic has filed a draft Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, advancing its path toward a potential public listing pending regulatory review. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

SpaceX-Anthropic compute deal initially for 180-day lease, Musk says By Investing.com

Investing.com-- SpaceX's deal to provide artificial startup Anthropic with computing power is for an initial lease of 180 days with no commitments over the long term, CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday evening. The rocket maker had earlier disclosed a deal to provide Anthropic with computing power from its Colossus data center until May 2029. Get more breaking news on SpaceX and its upcoming IPO by subscribing to InvestingPro Responding to a social media post on the SpaceX-Anthropic agreement, Musk said "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it's possible that may be what happens." Musk said the Anthropic deal was a 180-day lease with a 90-day notice for mutual cancellation thereafter. He added that the short term was requested by SpaceX, citing the potential need for internal computing capacity. "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. SpaceX had revealed in its initial public offering filing that Anthropic will make monthly payments of $1.25 billion to the rocket maker until May 2029, representing potential overall revenue of nearly $45 billion in three years. Anthropic will pay a smaller monthly amount in May and June 2026. The startup will receive access to more than 300 megawatts of compute capacity from SpaceX's Colossus 1 center. Anthropic had also expanded the agreement to include computing power from SpaceX's upcoming Colossus 2 center. Musk had last week signaled that SpaceX was also in talks with other companies to provide computing capacity. The move is likely aimed at ramping up SpaceX's AI-linked revenues, especially given that xAI- the company's AI arm- recorded a loss of $6.36 billion in 2025. xAI, which was merged with SpaceX last year, is expected to be a major drag on the company's overall financial health. Musk's AI startup had also aggressively borrowed to fund its AI buildout, which includes the Colossus centers. Leasing out compute represents a means for Musk to monetize this buildout, given that xAI's flagship Grok chatbot severely lags rival offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI in user figures and paid subscriptions. SpaceX is headed for a bumper IPO in June, aiming to raise $75 billion at a valuation of between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion.

Musk says SpaceX agreed only six-month Colossus AI lease to Anthropic

May 28 (Reuters) - SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday the IPO-bound company had only agreed to lease its Colossus AI training data center clusters to Anthropic for six months, though he added it was "possible" the arrangement could extend for multiple years. "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it's possible that may be what happens," Musk said in a post on X. Earlier this year, SpaceX inked deals for Anthropic to pay it $1.25 billion a month to use compute capacity from its Colossus and Colossus II data center clusters in Memphis, Tennessee through May 2029. SpaceX, which filed for IPO last week, said in the regulatory filing that both companies could terminate the agreements with a 90-day notice. The filing did not make any mention of the six-month lease. SpaceX and Anthropic did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. The agreement is a 180-day lease with a mutual 90-day cancellation notice thereafter, Musk said. "The short term was our request, not Anthropic's," he said on X, referring to the Colossus deal. "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," the billionaire added. Last week, Musk posted on X that SpaceX was in discussions with other companies about "offering AI compute as a service at significant scale." SpaceX's AI segment lost about $2.5 billion from operations in the March quarter, on segment revenue of $818 million, according to its IPO filing. (Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)