What Are Elon Musk's SpaceX and Anthropic Planning Ahead of Their $1.75T and $850B IPOs?

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has signed an agreement with Anthropic, giving the Claude AI developer access to capacity at the Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee, as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to rise.

Anthropic said on May 6 that the agreement covers more than 300 megawatts of compute capacity and includes access to over 220,000 Nvidia graphics processing units. The facility includes advanced chips used for training and running large AI models, including Nvidia H100, H200 and next-generation GB200 systems.

The agreement comes as both companies are reportedly preparing for large public market listings. SpaceX has been linked to a potential IPO valuation between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion, while Anthropic has reportedly been in talks with investors at a valuation of about $850 billion to $900 billion.

The deal also follows SpaceX’s merger with xAI earlier in 2026, which expanded Musk’s role in the artificial intelligence sector. SpaceX and xAI have been building data center capacity around Memphis as AI companies compete for access to chips, power and large-scale computing sites.

Anthropic Secures More Claude Capacity

Anthropic said the new compute access will support growth for Claude, its family of AI models used in chat, coding and enterprise tools. The company has faced rising demand for Claude Code and its Claude Opus models, which has placed pressure on infrastructure during peak usage periods.

Following the SpaceX agreement, Anthropic announced higher limits for some paid users. The company said it would double the five-hour rate limit for Claude Code users on Pro, Max, Team and seat-based Enterprise plans. It also raised API rate limits for developers using Claude Opus models.

Ami Vora, Anthropic’s chief product officer, announced the agreement during the company’s developer conference in San Francisco. The company said the added capacity would help improve reliability and performance for subscribers and developers.

Anthropic has also signed other compute agreements in recent weeks, including a multi-billion-dollar arrangement with Amazon. The company continues to work with large cloud and infrastructure providers as it scales its models for consumer, developer and enterprise use.

SpaceX Expands AI Infrastructure Business

The SpaceX-Anthropic agreement marks another step in SpaceX’s move into compute services after its combination with xAI. The Memphis-based Colossus 1 site has become one of the largest AI data center projects associated with Musk’s companies.

SpaceX and xAI are using the infrastructure for internal model development while also selling access to outside companies. Reports in April said AI coding firm Cursor would train a model using xAI-linked GPUs. The Anthropic agreement shows that SpaceX is seeking commercial revenue from its AI infrastructure buildout.

The Memphis project has also drawn public attention over its power supply. xAI and related entities have used natural gas turbines at the site, saying they were temporary. Local residents and environmental groups have raised concerns about air pollution near the facility.

Anthropic’s agreement includes interest in future space-based computing projects. The company said it may work with SpaceX to develop multiple gigawatts of orbital AI compute capacity. Such systems would aim to address limits linked to land, power and cooling for large data centers.

Elon Musk Shifts Tone on Anthropic

The deal follows months of public criticism from Musk toward Anthropic. In February, Musk wrote on X that Anthropic “hates Western Civilization” and criticized the company’s approach to AI and government policy.

On Wednesday, Musk said he had spent time with senior Anthropic staff and was impressed by their work. He wrote that the people he met were highly competent and cared about doing the right thing. He added that Claude could be positive if the company continues critical self-review.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees and is led by Chief Executive Dario Amodei. The company has grown into one of the main AI model developers competing with OpenAI, which is in a legal clash with Elon Musk, Google, and xAI.

The company has also been involved in legal and policy disputes with the U.S. government. The Pentagon declared Anthropic a supply chain risk in March after disagreements over military use of its models. Anthropic has filed lawsuits seeking to reverse that action.

The SpaceX partnership gives Anthropic a new source of computing power as it prepares for possible public market plans. For SpaceX, the agreement adds a high-profile AI customer while investors watch reports of a potential IPO.