Anthropic takes on OpenAI: Expands AI infrastructure with SpaceX deal, joining Google, Broadcom, Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon

Anthropic announced a major partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, securing the compute capacity of the “Colossus 1” data centre to power its AI models. The agreement marks a significant expansion for Anthropic as it ramps up its infrastructure to compete with industry rivals like OpenAI. The deal gives Anthropic access to over 300 megawatts of new capacity, which is equivalent to more than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs, within the next month. “We’ve agreed to a partnership with @SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity. This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API,” the company posted on X (formerly Twitter).This surge in power will directly benefit paid subscribers of the company’s Claude Pro and Claude Max services. Looking even further ahead, Anthropic has expressed interest in working with SpaceX to develop "orbital AI compute capacity” measured in multiple gigawatts.Like ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Anthropic is expanding its list of partners. The SpaceX agreement is the latest in a string of massive infrastructure deals Anthropic has secured with the world's leading technology firms.With Amazon, Anthropic has an agreement for up to 5 gigawatts (GW), with 1 GW expected by the end of 2026. With Google and Broadcom, Anthropic has a 5GW partnership set to begin coming online in 2027. Moreover, the company has tie-ups with Microsoft and Nvidia for $30 billion in Azure compute capacity. With Fluidstack, it has a $50 billion investment focused on American AI infrastructure.The Colossus 1 facility, located in Memphis, is currently the largest data centre operated by xAI, a competing AI company run by Musk and owned by SpaceX. While xAI uses the site to build its own tools, the facility has faced local criticism.The partnership is particularly notable given Musk's public history of criticising Anthropic. Musk has frequently attacked the company on his social media platform, X, calling it “hypocritical” and suggesting it is “doomed to become the opposite of its name”.Meanwhile, a separate report from The Information claims that Anthropic has committed to spend $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years as part of a recent agreement, suggesting that the AI startup accounts for more than 40% of the revenue backlog Google disclosed to investors last week.