Anthropic will pay xAI $1.25B per month for compute | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. Earlier this month, Anthropic surprised the AI world with a deal to buy 300 megawatts’ worth of compute — securing the entire output of the Colossus 1 data center near Memphis, Tennessee. Turns out, compute at that scale isn’t cheap. Anthropic will be paying xAI $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, with a discounted rate for the first two months as xAI completes its ramp-up. All told, the deal could bring xAI over $40 billion in revenue. Details of the transaction emerged from SpaceX’s S-1 filing with the SEC. The deal, the company said, “allows us to monetize unused compute capacity in our infrastructure.” The terms of the deal allow either side to terminate the contract with 90 days’ notice. “We expect to enter into additional similar services contracts,” the filing stated. The move has given xAI a hybrid stance in the AI market. Most players either build data centers for themselves or build data centers for others to use — rarely both simultaneously. This emerging model, s