Elon Musk has publicly pledged not to disrupt Anthropic’s access to SpaceX infrastructure, despite concerns that he might leverage his control over servers to sabotage a key competitor. Addressing speculation on X, Musk dismissed the idea of cutting off Anthropic as “not my style,” marking a significant shift in his stance toward the AI laboratory.
From Public Critic to Business Partner
Musk’s recent comments represent a complete reversal from his September 2025 post on X, where he claimed that “winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic.” By July 2026, however, the landscape has changed drastically: Anthropic has become one of SpaceX’s most significant enterprise customers.
Following the February merger between SpaceX and xAI, the companies secured a massive deal in May. Anthropic agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 to utilize the entire output of the Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee—a contract worth approximately $40 billion. Google has also entered a similar agreement, renting SpaceX infrastructure for $920 million per month through June 2029.
Musk Defends His Competitive “Style”
In a direct reply to users, Musk praised the rival lab, stating, “They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon.”
To support his claim that he does not engage in anti-competitive behavior, Musk cited Tesla’s historical actions, such as its patent pledge to refrain from suing those who use its technology in good faith, as well as the opening of the Supercharger network to competitors. “SpaceX launches competing satellite systems with no increase in price or use of unfair terms,” Musk added.
The Security of the Multi-Billion Dollar Deal
While Musk emphasizes his personal code of conduct, the partnership is grounded in rigid legal and financial realities. A sudden shutdown of infrastructure would trigger severe contractual consequences for SpaceX. Furthermore, the financial incentive is immense; beyond the $40 billion revenue stream, the proximity allows SpaceX engineers to gain technical insights into supporting massive AI workloads.
The Risk of “AI Distillation”
Despite the current synergy, the arrangement raises questions regarding data security. Musk has previously acknowledged that “AI distilling”—where companies probe rivals to reverse-engineer their technology—is a common industry practice. While Anthropic has previously accused three Chinese model makers of attempting to distill their Claude models, hosting their compute on SpaceX servers grants the provider a level of visibility into operations that few competitors ever obtain.
As the New York Times has reported, the practice of distillation remains a point of contention in the sector. For now, the partnership remains lucrative for both parties, though the long-term dynamics of this three-year agreement remain to be seen.
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