Anthropic Pays $15B/Year for Elon Musk's SpaceX Data Centers

SpaceX IPO Filing Reveals Massive AI Compute Deal

Earlier this month, SpaceX and Anthropic announced a groundbreaking compute partnership granting the AI company access to SpaceX's Colossus data centers in Memphis, TN. Now, SpaceX's recently released IPO filing (S-1) provides unprecedented financial details about this agreement, including the staggering $15 billion annual payment from Anthropic to Elon Musk's rocket company.

Key Financial Terms of the Anthropic-SpaceX Agreement

According to the filing, Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for access to SpaceX's AI training centers at Colossus I and Colossus II. This amounts to $15 billion annually, a sum that could nearly double the $18.7 billion in revenue SpaceX reported for all of 2025.

Exit Clause and Flexibility

The agreement includes a critical clause allowing either company to terminate the deal within 90 days of notice. Additionally, Anthropic's fees will be reduced during the capacity ramp-up period this month and next. This exit provision reflects the fast-moving nature of the AI industry, especially given that Anthropic's Claude competes with X's Grok.

Why AI Companies Desperately Need Data Center Capacity

This partnership underscores how desperate AI companies like Anthropic are for compute capacity, particularly as data center buildouts across the country face serious local opposition. The deal provides Anthropic with essential infrastructure to scale its AI models while SpaceX monetizes its massive investment in AI hardware.

SpaceX's AI Investment and Financial Performance

SpaceX has been pouring enormous resources into AI since merging with Elon Musk's xAI earlier this year. The filing reveals the company spent $12.7 billion in capital expenditures on AI in 2025, representing about 61 percent of total spend. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, AI spending reached $7.7 billion, compared to just $1 billion on its space division.

AI Division Losses

Despite the massive investment, SpaceX's AI division reported significant losses: $6.3 billion in operating losses on $3.2 billion in revenue in 2025, and $2.5 billion in losses on $818 million in revenue in Q1 2026.

Elon Musk's Vision for AI Compute as a Service

In a post on X, Musk indicated that SpaceX is "offering AI compute as a service at significant scale" and stands ready to offer similar deals to other AI companies seeking data center access. This positions SpaceX as a major player in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market.

Anthropic's Path to Profitability

Meanwhile, Anthropic is approaching its first quarterly operating profit. According to Reuters, the company's sales revenue is expected to reach at least $10.9 billion, more than double the $4.8 billion in revenue from the just-ended March quarter. This financial trajectory reinforces the strategic importance of securing reliable, high-capacity compute infrastructure.

Correction Notice

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the $15 billion annual payment from Anthropic would double SpaceX's 2025 revenue. It would actually nearly double the company's revenue.