Anthropic has announced a major partnership with Elon Musk's SpaceX, securing compute capacity from the Colossus 1 data centre to power its artificial intelligence models. This agreement marks a significant expansion for Anthropic as it ramps up infrastructure to compete with industry rivals like OpenAI.
Details of the Partnership
The deal grants Anthropic access to over 300 megawatts of new capacity within the next month, equivalent to more than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs. The company posted on X (formerly Twitter): 'We've agreed to a partnership with @SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity. This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we've been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.'
This surge in power will directly benefit paid subscribers of Anthropic's Claude Pro and Claude Max services. Looking further ahead, Anthropic has expressed interest in working with SpaceX to develop 'orbital AI compute capacity' measured in multiple gigawatts.
Anthropic's Growing Network of Partners
Like ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Anthropic is expanding its list of partners. The SpaceX agreement is the latest in a string of massive infrastructure deals with leading technology firms:
- Amazon: Agreement for up to 5 gigawatts (GW), with 1 GW expected by the end of 2026.
- Google and Broadcom: 5 GW partnership set to begin coming online in 2027.
- Microsoft and Nvidia: $30 billion in Azure compute capacity.
- Fluidstack: $50 billion investment focused on American AI infrastructure.
Colossus 1 Facility
The Colossus 1 facility, located in Memphis, is currently the largest data centre operated by xAI, a competing AI company run by Musk and owned by SpaceX. While xAI uses the site to build its own tools, the facility has faced local criticism.
The partnership is particularly notable given Musk's public history of criticising Anthropic. Musk has frequently attacked the company on X, calling it 'hypocritical' and suggesting it is 'doomed to become the opposite of its name'.
Additional Financial Commitments
Meanwhile, a separate report from The Information claims that Anthropic has committed to spend $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years as part of a recent agreement, suggesting that the AI startup accounts for more than 40% of the revenue backlog Google disclosed to investors last week.
