A recent debate emerged regarding the prudence of Anthropic entrusting its AI models to Elon Musk's infrastructure. Concerns arose on X, suggesting Musk might unilaterally terminate Anthropic's access to SpaceX servers, potentially to undermine a competitor. In response, Musk vehemently denied such intentions, offering effusive praise for the AI firm and stating that such tactics were “not my style.”
Musk publicly retracted his previous skepticism about Anthropic, writing on Thursday, “I was clearly wrong about Anthropic.” This statement contrasted sharply with his September 2025 post on X, where he had asserted, “Winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic.” Ironically, even at that earlier date, Anthropic was already recognized as a significant player, reportedly holding the largest AI market share among enterprises.
It appears Musk’s past reservations about Anthropic are now behind him, and not merely in his public declarations. By July 2026, Anthropic had solidified its position as one of SpaceX’s most substantial clients.
This significant relationship stems from a deal signed in May, under which Anthropic committed to purchasing 300 megawatts of compute capacity—representing the entire output of xAI’s Colossus 1 data center near Memphis, Tennessee. (Musk’s xAI had merged with SpaceX in February.) Anthropic agreed to monthly payments of $1.25 billion through May 2029, a contract projected to generate approximately $40 billion in revenue for SpaceX’s xAI unit. Notably, Google also entered into an agreement to lease SpaceX infrastructure, with payments of $920 million per month through June 2029.
Musk adamantly asserts that Anthropic’s decision to partner with SpaceX is not a perilous one, expressing profound admiration for the rival company.
“They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon. And I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor. That’s not my style,” he reiterated.
As evidence of his commitment to fair competition, Musk cited Tesla’s 2014 decision—documented in a now-deleted blog post and its patent pledge—to refrain from initiating patent lawsuits against entities genuinely seeking to use its technology. He further highlighted Tesla’s initiative to open its Supercharger network and charging port design to competing manufacturers.
“SpaceX launches competing satellite systems with no increase in price or use of unfair terms. Even my worst enemies can attack me on this platform,” he added, providing another illustration of his operational philosophy.
However, it is also true that Musk has not shied away from employing strategic tactics against rivals, particularly those with whom he has a contentious history. A notable example is his lawsuit against OpenAI.
Nevertheless, Anthropic’s position does not solely rely on Musk’s adherence to his stated "style." Any sudden termination of Anthropic’s infrastructure access by Musk would undoubtedly trigger significant contractual repercussions. Furthermore, SpaceX stands to gain immense benefits by preserving this lucrative agreement. Beyond the substantial payments from Anthropic, SpaceX engineers could acquire invaluable expertise in developing for and supporting Anthropic’s rapidly expanding AI, mirroring the knowledge transfer seen with Amazon’s engineers.
This close operational proximity could also yield other strategic advantages. During his trial against OpenAI, Musk acknowledged the reality of AI “distilling”—a process where a model developer creates numerous fake accounts to prompt a competitor’s system and glean insights into its functionality. As reported by The New York Times, when questioned by a lawyer about whether xAI had ever distilled technology from OpenAI, Musk responded: “Generally AI companies distill other AI companies.”
In February, Anthropic itself accused three Chinese model makers of engaging in this very practice with its Claude models. Presumably, both Anthropic and Google have implemented safeguards against SpaceX potentially employing such tactics while utilizing its infrastructure. Yet, hosting Anthropic’s compute infrastructure could still afford SpaceX a level of operational visibility into the company that most competitors would never achieve.
For Musk’s company, this partnership currently appears to offer nothing but upside. However, as the three-year contracts mature, the future dynamics remain an open question.
The Editorial Staff at AIChief is a team of professional content writers with extensive experience in AI and marketing. Founded in 2025, AIChief has quickly grown into the largest free AI resource hub in the industry.