Musk Praises Anthropic as 'AI Leader' While SpaceX Hosts Rival's $40B Infrastructure Deal

Jul 10, 2026
TechCrunch
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Summary

Elon Musk publicly praises Anthropic as 'currently the leader in AI' while SpaceX locks the rival company into a massive $40 billion infrastructure deal, raising eyebrows over potential conflicts of interest and whether hosting a competitor's operations gives Musk's company unusual visibility into Anthropic's AI development.

Key Points

  • Elon Musk publicly praises Anthropic, calling it 'currently the leader in AI' and reversing his earlier skepticism, while promising he would never cut off the company's access to SpaceX infrastructure even as a competitor.
  • Anthropic is now one of SpaceX's largest customers, locked into a $40 billion deal to purchase 300 megawatts of compute from xAI's Colossus 1 data center through May 2029, paying $1.25 billion per month.
  • Despite Musk's reassurances, concerns linger that hosting Anthropic's infrastructure gives SpaceX unusual visibility into the rival company's operations, raising questions about potential AI 'distilling' and long-term trust as the three-year contract ages.

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