One of the most surprising details in Anthropic's IPO prospectus concerns a supplier that would have been hard to imagine a year ago: Elon Musk's SpaceX. According to the public prospectus the company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Anthropic could pay SpaceX up to $120.5 billion for AI computing power through 2029.
A number that keeps growing
The figure has grown sharply over recent months. When the deal was announced in May, SpaceX disclosed payments of about $1.25 billion a month for three years, or about $45 billion. Reuters later reported, based on a confidential prospectus it reviewed, a commitment of up to $84.5 billion. According to reports on the public prospectus, the ceiling has now risen to $120.5 billion, with monthly payments reaching about $3.1 billion once all the capacity is delivered.
What Anthropic gets
According to the company, the agreement covers all the computing capacity of SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center, more than 300 megawatts and more than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs, as well as capacity at the Colossus II center. Anthropic has also expressed interest in future cooperation on computing in space, but that is not part of the commitment.
The clause that matters to investors
According to reports, after an initial non-cancellable period that ends in January and March 2027, either side can end the contracts with 90 days' notice. That makes the commitment much more flexible than Anthropic's usual cloud contracts with Amazon and Google, and reduces the risk if demand slows.
Why it matters
The deal shows how much the tech world has changed: SpaceX, which started as a launch company, has become one of the largest suppliers of computing power to the AI industry, and even a supplier to a competitor of xAI, Musk's own AI company. For Anthropic, which is preparing for a Nasdaq listing, it is a way to secure access to computing at enormous scale without building everything itself. For investors, it is one more figure showing how much money it takes to stay at the top of the AI race.
