Musk backs $40bn Anthropic compute deal, rules out sabotage

Elon Musk has vowed not to sever Anthropic’s access to SpaceX’s servers, publicly endorsing the AI lab despite their fierce rivalry. The statement follows user concerns that Musk might leverage his control over the infrastructure to cripple a competitor.

Anthropic is now one of SpaceX’s largest customers as of July 2026, following a May agreement to purchase 300 megawatts of compute. Anthropic pays $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 to use the entire output of xAI’s Colossus 1 data center in Tennessee. The xAI unit merged with SpaceX in February, and this deal alone is worth roughly $40 billion in revenue.

The public backing marks a sharp reversal from September 2025, when Musk declared that "Winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic." On Thursday, he admitted, "I was clearly wrong about Anthropic." He praised the company's technology, stating: "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."

For European businesses, Anthropic's leading market share in the enterprise AI sector makes the stability of this supply chain a major concern. European companies relying on Anthropic's models face severe operational risks if a single US executive can arbitrarily disrupt its compute access.

In practice, Anthropic is shielded by severe contractual consequences, making an abrupt shutdown financially disastrous for SpaceX. The arrangement also offers engineering benefits, giving SpaceX’s staff experience building for Anthropic’s AI stack in the same way Amazon’s engineers do.

Yet the infrastructure deal presents a distinct strategic advantage for Musk. During his trial against OpenAI, Musk acknowledged the industry reality of "distilling," where companies use fake accounts to probe rival systems. "Generally AI companies distill other AI companies," he said. While Anthropic and Google, which also rents SpaceX infrastructure through June 2029 for $920 million a month, presumably have safeguards, hosting Anthropic's workloads grants SpaceX unparalleled visibility into a top competitor's operations.