The same week SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, was characterizing OpenAI’s AI commercialization as an act of institutional betrayal from a federal witness stand in an Oakland court, his rocket company was closing a deal to make his Colossus data center one of the most influential infrastructures in the industry.
On Wednesday, SpaceX and Anthropic confirmed that the AI developer will receive exclusive access to the entirety of the Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
SpaceX’s Elon Musk xAI supercomputer houses more than 220,000 Nvidia GPU and draws more than 300 megawatts of power. Anthropic has also expressed interest in partnering to develop an orbital data center with AI compute capacity, but it’s yet to be confirmed as a firm plan.
The deal was announced at a San Francisco developer conference and will have the power to double Anthropic’s available compute capacity and eliminate the peak-hour processing constraints that have been throttling the Claude-parent’s premium subscription tier.
Anthropic’s constraints that come from nature and its resources such as land, water, and power have started to become hurdles. With its partnership with SpaceX, Anthropic will gain a massive edge over its competitors, abandoning traditional fuel sources and taking off into space.
Beyond the Limits of Earth
The immediate effects of the deal exclusively revolve around the gigantic Colossus data center. Within just one month, Anthropic will receive an additional 300 megawatts of power from the data center through SpaceX’s xAI supercomputer – enough power to fuel 300,000 houses.
With such a huge flood of power, Anthropic will now be able to lift the cap on usage by its Claude Pro and Claude Max users. However, the true significance of this alliance lies in infrastructure sovereignty.
The geometry of the SpaceX-Anthropic deal is as important as its specifications as the AI developer has been the most absent from the infrastructure consolidation that’s been defining AI development.
Anthropic has been operating without the computing advantage that Microsoft’s data center commitments provide OpenAI – to whom Musk has a bitter feud with, or that Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) clusters provide to Gemini.
Google’s TPU, also known as Google AI chip, is a specialized application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) developed by the Big Tech giant for machine learning and AI workloads.
While tech giants like Google and Microsoft are currently struggling to find enough land and power on Earth, the Memphis xAI data center will provide Anthropic with a unique blueprint for rapid expansion.
Anthropic is using the Colossus data center to escape the physical constraints of the planet. In the announcement, SpaceX noted that the sheer amount of power needed for the next generation of AI is outpacing what terrestrial power, land, and cooling can deliver on the timelines that matter.
Musk’s Maneuver Againt OpenAI
For Musk’s SpaceX, the calculus points out to a different direction where the Colossus deal with Anthropic advanced a more subtle and strategic maneuver against OpenAI. Especially considering how the billionaire CEO’s lawsuit against OpenAI rests on the sole argument that non-profit AI research commercialization is a fundamental moral and legal violation.
Well, rumor has it that Anthropic’s – OpenAI’s competitor – commercial ambitions are, by any measure, equally aggressive to the GPT-parent. Yet, somehow, the SpaceX CEO is aligning the Colossus data center – finalized within days of his testimony in the OpenAI lawsuit – as the sole enabling infrastructure for the equally said aggressive competitor.
With the help of the xAI Memphis data center, Anthropic will now have the means to intensify its scaling. In the long run, if finalized, the orbital data center deal will also deliver unlimited solar power and natural cooling, ensuring no strain is placed on local populations.
Is AI Sovereignty Possible?
The shift to space-based computing gives Anthropic the freedom to operate outside the traditional infrastructure controlled by its rivals. While Anthropic still utilizes hardware from Amazon and Google, the xAI Memphis supercomputer provides a unique edge.
Elon Musk stated that his decision to lease power from the Colossus data center came after meeting with Anthropic’s leaders and feeling confident in their mission.
The announcement is an advocacy from Musk. By granting access to the Elon Musk xAI supercomputer, the tech leader is helping a former rival challenge the status quo.
The xAI Musk Colossus is only the start, as both SpaceX and Anthropic are viewed as prime candidates for an IPO in 2026. Therefore, proving that they can build credible and scalable infrastructure is a vital signal to potential investors.
As the xAI Memphis data center scales its operation, safety takes priority. As both companies eye potential initial public offerings in 2026, the move to orbit serves as a powerful signal to investors.
The xAI Memphis data center proves that massive scale is possible while other companies are fighting for space on the ground.
The Colossus Musk AI center is not just a building but could be a new engine. With the use of the xAI supercomputer, the objective becomes obvious that future intelligence should not be hindered by the restraints of the current world.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Tech sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.