Anthropic to pay xAI $1.25B/month to rent SpaceX-linked Colossus 1 data center (300 MW, ~220,000 GPUs)

Anthropic agreed to buy roughly 300 megawatts of compute from Elon Musk's xAI, securing the entire output of the Colossus 1 data center near Memphis, Tennessee, which houses over 220,000 Nvidia GPUs including H100, H200 and next-generation GB200 accelerators. Under terms that surfaced via SpaceX's S-1 SEC filing, Anthropic will pay xAI $1.25 billion per month through May 2029—with a discounted rate during an initial two-month ramp—an arrangement TechCrunch said could generate over $40 billion in revenue for xAI; either party may exit on 90 days' notice. The deal is notable for its rivalry optics: Anthropic, a direct competitor to xAI's Grok, is renting Musk-controlled infrastructure, and Musk publicly remarked 'No one set off my evil detector.' xAI characterized the arrangement as monetizing unused capacity; coverage noted xAI is keeping its larger Colossus 2 site for its own training.

Reporting indicated the rented capacity represents a capped share (around 11%) of xAI's overall park. Anthropic said it would use the additional compute to expand capacity for Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers, and separately expressed interest in partnering to develop multiple gigawatts of orbital (space-based) AI compute. The agreement is one of several large compute commitments Anthropic disclosed in the window—alongside a SpaceX-related arrangement and a ~$36 billion Google-TPU debt financing—underscoring how frontier labs are locking up power and chips amid an industry-wide capacity crunch.

Dollar and capacity figures derive from corporate filings and company statements.