SAN FRANCISCO — Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has agreed to pay Elon Musk’s SpaceX approximately $1.25 billion per month for cloud computing capacity, according to public documents. The arrangement is set to run through May 2029, securing critical hardware infrastructure for the developer of the Claude AI model ecosystem.
The details of the multi-billion-dollar commercial agreement were made public through SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) registration paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The contract guarantees Anthropic access to both of SpaceX's primary specialized AI data center clusters, known as Colossus and Colossus II.
According to the regulatory terms, either company can terminate the infrastructure agreement with a 90-day notice period. The filing also notes that the monthly fees will be temporarily prorated during an initial capacity ramp-up phase over the next two months. Following the disclosure, Musk indicated on his social media platform, X, that SpaceX is actively negotiating similar infrastructure-as-a-service contracts with other enterprise clients.
Anthropic Approaches Financial Turning Point
The unprecedented infrastructure spending arrives as Anthropic experiences sharp commercial growth, driven by enterprise adoption of its Claude programming models. Sources close to the company indicate that the San Francisco-based firm is on track to record its very first quarterly operating profit.
In recent briefings with venture capital partners, Anthropic projected that its second-quarter sales for the period ending in June could reach at least $10.9 billion. That figure more than doubles the $4.8 billion in revenue generated during the first quarter of the year.
If these internal projections hold, the revenue surge will yield a projected second-quarter operating profit of roughly $559 million. Achieving profitability remains a rare milestone among frontier AI labs, which generally face steep financial headwinds due to the intense costs required to train, run, and maintain large-scale neural networks.
SpaceX Aims to Offset Infrastructure Deficits
For SpaceX, the fixed revenue stream provides a significant financial offset for its expanding artificial intelligence division. While the aerospace company is highly profitable in its satellite launch and Starlink operations, its dedicated AI infrastructure segment remains deeply in the red.
SpaceX’s recent IPO documentation showed that its standalone AI segment recorded a $2.5 billion operational loss for the first quarter of the year, against segment revenues of just $818 million. The deficit stems from the massive capital expenditures required to construct, power, and cool liquid-cooled data facilities in the American South.
By leasing out its unutilized server capacity to major third-party developers like Anthropic, SpaceX is positioned to turn its massive physical infrastructure footprint into a steady, long-term source of corporate revenue ahead of its stock market debut.
The commercial deal highlights the massive infrastructure costs facing frontier labs as Anthropic approaches its first quarterly profit.
