Why is Anthropic Paying Elon Musk's SpaceX $1.25 Billion a Month? Inside The Massive Colossus Pact

The artificial intelligence sector has reached a critical juncture where securing vast computing infrastructure is now essential. A new US regulatory filing published on Wednesday reveals that Anthropic has committed to paying a direct rival an eye‑watering sum for long‑term cloud access.

The agreement mandates that Anthropic pay SpaceX £980 million ($1.25 billion) every month until May 2029. This equates to £11.8 billion ($15 billion) annually and underscores how compute access has become a defining bottleneck in developing artificial intelligence.

Securing Colossus: The Race to Dominate AI Computing Power

The Claude developer secured access to GPUs at Colossus and Colossus II earlier this month. These data centres, spanning Tennessee and Mississippi, hold more than one gigawatt of computing power.

SpaceX originally constructed these facilities for xAI, the unit responsible for the Grok AI chatbot. Elon Musk recently noted his company did not require the entirety of this computing capacity.

Terms remained undisclosed until the S-1 filing, which confirmed Anthropic is paying an unspecified reduced fee for May and June. The financial commitment underscores Anthropic's urgent need to support products like its AI coding tools.

Exploring SpaceX's £59 Billion ($75 Billion) IPO Valuation

Projections indicate Anthropic's revenue for the second quarter of 2026 will surpass £7.9 billion ($10 billion). An Anthropic spokesperson confirmed the figures, while SpaceX has yet to comment.

SpaceX anticipates it will 'enter into additional similar services contracts,' while continuing to use the data centres. 'We have sufficient capacity to provide compute for our own AI models, including support of our training and inference demands, and to satisfy the obligations under these agreements,' the filing states.

SpaceX is pursuing the largest initial public offering in history, aiming to raise £59 billion ($75 billion) at a £1.38 trillion ($1.75 trillion) valuation. The firm submitted paperwork to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 1 April.

Musk's Iron Grip: Investor Concerns and Governance Safeguards

A Nasdaq public debut under the ticker SPCX could happen by 12 June. Financial disclosures show SpaceX generated nearly £3.7 billion ($4.7 billion) in revenue during the first quarter of this year, alongside losses of almost £3.4 billion ($4.3 billion).

Last year, SpaceX generated £14.7 billion ($18.7 billion) in revenue but lost £3.8 billion ($4.9 billion) amid heavy spending. Excerpts indicate that Musk is the only individual with the authority to dismiss himself, and he will maintain board control.

Advocacy groups have actively urged investors to reconsider supporting this corporate approach. They called SpaceX's proposal 'novel and extreme', and 'the most management‑favorable governance structure ever brought to the U.S. public markets at this scale.'

'We acknowledge SpaceX's extraordinary technical and commercial achievements, and we recognize the role the company plays in U.S. national security and commercial space,' pension fund leaders wrote. 'Its governance must at least adhere to the baseline protections upon which long‑term institutional capital depends, rather than seeking to diminish them.'

Market Volatility, Rising Debt, and the Future of Starship

Activists fear SpaceX's intention to allow individual investors to purchase roughly 30 per cent of the initially offered shares. This could transform the firm into a volatile meme stock, though new market regulations might eventually stabilise prices.

Leaks reveal Starlink generated £9 billion ($11.4 billion) in sales last year, while the company's debt increased to £18 billion ($23 billion). SpaceX has invested over £11.8 billion ($15 billion) into developing Starship, aiming for a Thursday launch.

Some other leaks suggested xAI could be dealing with international bans because of its chatbot, along with major question marks around its orbiting data centres. Despite the setbacks, the team is still working hard to get past these roadblocks before the official debut.