Earlier this month, xAI signed a major compute deal with Anthropic, pledging billions of {dollars} a month for unique use of the corporate’s Colossus cluster. It was a coup for each firms, giving xAI some much-needed income and serving to Anthropic catch up within the endless race for compute.
However this morning on X, Elon Musk downplayed precisely how a lot SpaceX had dedicated to the deal.
“SpaceX has not dedicated to leasing Colossus for years, though it’s attainable that could be what occurs,” he mentioned, replying to a consumer. “It is a 180 day lease with 90 day discover mutual cancellation thereafter. The brief time period was our request, not Anthropic’s. We gained’t depart them hanging and can present an inexpensive off-ramp, but when compute will get tremendous tight I mentioned we would want it again in some unspecified time in the future.”
Musk’s assertion immediately contradicts SpaceX’s recent S-1 filing, which confirms the usual 90-day cancellation however presents the deal as a three-year settlement. Web page F-62 of the submitting reads:
On Could 3, 2026, the Firm entered right into a cloud providers settlement with Anthropic PBC, an AI analysis and growth public profit company, with respect to entry to compute capability. Pursuant to this settlement, the client has agreed to pay a month-to-month price by means of Could 2029, with capability ramping in Could 2026 at a decreased price. The settlement could also be terminated by both social gathering upon 90 days’ discover. The client will retain possession and mental property rights in its content material, AI fashions, and associated information.
The important thing level right here is that Anthropic “has agreed to pay a month-to-month price by means of Could 2029” — a reasonably easy description of a three-year lease. The identical language is repeated on F-96 and in barely assorted kind (“the client has agreed to pay us $1.25 billion per 30 days by means of Could 2029”) on pages 13 and 146, so it’s not as if there was a typo.
xAI didn’t reply to a request for clarification.
Possibly we will quibble about whether or not Anthropic agreeing to pay for a service means the identical factor as SpaceX agreeing to offer that service, however that’s not often what “lease” means. And why have a one-way lock-in if both social gathering can terminate the cope with three months’ discover anyway?
I don’t have the deal in entrance of me, so I don’t know what it says — and neither SpaceX nor Anthropic is saying something concerning the period of the deal of their bulletins. Nonetheless, there ought to be a reasonably easy truth of the matter right here, and it’s not the kind of factor you wish to make false statements about throughout an organization’s quiet interval.
As at all times, we must always word that the SEC in all probability won’t do something — and even when they did, Elon in all probability wouldn’t care. However this kind of does look like a material misrepresentation made while marketing a security, which is unhealthy karma on the very least.
Sean O’Kane contributed reporting to this text.
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