Anthropic pledges to pay nearly $45 billion for SpaceX's computing power

AI company Anthropic has committed to paying nearly $45 billion over three years for computing power from SpaceX. According to the sources, this is stated in SpaceX's stock market prospectus, which was published on May 20, 2026. Computing power is the processing capacity AI models need, both when they are trained and when they are used.

The payment is $1.25 billion a month through May 2029. In May and June 2026, payments were lower while capacity was being ramped up. The agreement has since been expanded so that Anthropic also gets access to Colossus 2.

From merger to capacity leasing

SpaceX announced on February 3, 2026, that it was acquiring xAI. In the deal, SpaceX was valued at roughly $1,000 billion and xAI at roughly $250 billion. The deal was called the largest merger ever.

Elon Musk justified the merger by saying AI will eventually have to move into space. He points to data centers in Earth orbit powered by solar energy. He says: "In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale."

The AI division is still losing money

The figures from the prospectus show that the AI part of SpaceX is expensive to run. According to the prospectus, the division lost $6.35 billion in 2025 and $2.47 billion in the first quarter of 2026. The sources do not say how much of the loss the Anthropic agreement can cover.

The merger could face scrutiny from authorities, because SpaceX has contracts with NASA, the military and intelligence agencies, and these may have the authority to review larger acquisitions. Fox Business also raises questions about Musk's many leadership roles and possible conflicts of interest.

The figures for the Anthropic agreement come from a summary of the prospectus and not from the document itself. The terms of the merger itself, for example the exchange ratio between the shares, are not stated in the sources.