Elon Musk Praises Anthropic and Promises Not to Cut Them Off

From Criticism to Praise: How Did Musk's Stance on Anthropic Change?

In the volatile world of artificial intelligence, alliances and positions often shift with striking speed. Elon Musk, who once didn't hesitate to criticize Anthropic and question its ability to compete, now stands in a completely different position — publicly praising the company and affirming that he will not harm it, even though it is a direct competitor.

A Landmark Deal Linking Rivals

In May 2026, Anthropic signed an agreement with SpaceX's xAI division to purchase 300 megawatts of computing capacity — the full production capacity of the Colossus 1 data center located near Memphis, Tennessee. The deal is valued at approximately $40 billion over three years, with Anthropic committed to paying $1.25 billion per month through May 2029.

Notably, Google also entered a similar arrangement with SpaceX's infrastructure, under a contract running through June 2029 at a cost of $920 million per month, making SpaceX a primary cloud computing provider for two of the world's largest AI companies.

Musk Praises Anthropic's Models

When some users expressed concern that Musk might abruptly cut off services to Anthropic, he was quick to respond with notable praise, acknowledging that he had been wrong in his earlier assessment of the company. He stated that Anthropic is currently leading the AI landscape, pointing out that its latest models — codenamed Mythos and Fable — have yet to be matched, and that Mythos 2 will be ready soon.

Musk added that his competitive approach does not include harming rivals by cutting off infrastructure services, citing concrete examples from his own business history:

• Tesla's 2014 decision not to pursue legal action against any party that used its patents in good faith.
• Opening the Tesla Supercharger network and charging port designs to competing companies.
• SpaceX launching competing satellites without raising prices or imposing unfair conditions.

Legal Guarantees That Go Beyond Personal Promises

That said, Anthropic is not relying solely on Musk's promises or his stated approach. The contract signed between the two parties establishes strict legal obligations, and SpaceX's economic interest in maintaining the partnership serves as an additional safeguard. The benefit extends beyond the substantial cash flow — SpaceX engineers also gain hands-on experience supporting sophisticated, rapidly scaling AI systems, much like what Amazon does with its cloud computing customers.

Legitimate Questions About Privacy and Competition

The situation is not without its complexities. From a technical and strategic standpoint, hosting Anthropic's infrastructure gives SpaceX an exceptional window into how a competitor operates — something most rival companies rarely get. In a related development, Musk acknowledged during his lawsuit against OpenAI the existence of a practice known as "distillation," whereby some companies create fake accounts to send queries to competitors' models in order to reverse-engineer how they work. He went so far as to suggest this approach is widespread across the AI industry.

Anthropic had previously accused three Chinese companies in February 2026 of employing this tactic against its Claude model. The company and Google appear confident that they have put sufficient protective measures in place against this risk, even while relying on SpaceX's infrastructure.

An Equation That Looks Like a Win for Everyone… For Now

In the near term, this partnership appears fruitful for all parties involved: Anthropic gains enormous computing capacity to fuel its rapid growth, SpaceX earns substantial revenue alongside rare technical expertise, and Musk reinforces his image as a businessman who places commercial interests above personal rivalries with competitors. What the next three years will bring to this delicate equation, however, is something only time will tell.

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