How long is Anthropic’s lease with SpaceX? Opinions vary.

Source: TechCrunch

Background

Earlier this month, xAI signed a major compute deal with Anthropic, pledging billions of dollars a month for exclusive use of the company’s Colossus cluster. It was a coup for both companies, giving xAI some much‑needed revenue and helping Anthropic catch up in the never‑ending race for compute.

Elon Musk’s Statement

On X, Elon Musk downplayed how much SpaceX had committed to the deal:

“SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it’s possible that may be what happens,” he said, replying to a user. “This is a 180‑day lease with 90‑day notice mutual cancellation thereafter. The short term was our request, not Anthropic’s. We won’t leave them hanging and will provide a reasonable off‑ramp, but if compute gets super tight I said we might need it back at some point.”

SEC Filing

Musk’s statement directly contradicts SpaceX’s recent S‑1 filing, which confirms the standard 90‑day cancellation but presents the deal as a three‑year agreement. Page F‑62 of the filing reads:

On May 3, 2026, the Company entered into a cloud services agreement with Anthropic PBC, an AI research and development public benefit corporation, with respect to access to compute capacity. Pursuant to this agreement, the customer has agreed to pay a monthly fee through May 2029, with capacity ramping in May 2026 at a reduced fee. The agreement may be terminated by either party upon 90 days’ notice. The customer will retain ownership and intellectual property rights in its content, AI models, and related data.

The key point is that Anthropic “has agreed to pay a monthly fee through May 2029” – a straightforward description of a three‑year lease. The same language appears on pages F‑96 and 13/146 (e.g., “the customer has agreed to pay us $1.25 billion per month through May 2029”), indicating it is not a typo.

Response and Analysis

xAI did not respond to a request for clarification.

One could argue about whether Anthropic’s agreement to pay for a service is equivalent to SpaceX’s agreement to provide that service, but that is not the usual meaning of “lease.” Moreover, a one‑way lock‑in seems unnecessary if either party can terminate the deal with three months’ notice.

The actual contract has not been made public, and neither SpaceX nor Anthropic mention the duration in their announcements. Nonetheless, the factual terms should be clear, especially during a company’s quiet period.

While the SEC may not take action, misrepresentations of this sort could be viewed as a material misstatement made while marketing a security, which carries legal risk.

Sean O’Kane contributed reporting to this article.