SpaceX IPO Filing Exposes Anthropic's $15 Billion Annual Deal for AI Computing Power

SpaceX's IPO Filing Lifts the Curtain on a Massive AI Infrastructure Deal

A landmark computing agreement between SpaceX and Anthropic has finally come to light, thanks to the rocket company's newly released IPO prospectus. According to the S-1 regulatory filing, Anthropic — the company behind the Claude AI assistant — will pay SpaceX a staggering $1.25 billion per month for access to its high-powered data center infrastructure, translating to roughly $15 billion annually.

The Colossus Deal Explained

Earlier this month, Anthropic and SpaceX announced a partnership granting the AI firm access to GPU computing resources housed at Colossus and Colossus II — a pair of massive data centers spanning Tennessee and Mississippi. Together, these facilities command more than one gigawatt of computing power. SpaceX originally constructed them for its own AI division, xAI, which operates the Grok chatbot. However, Elon Musk acknowledged that his company ultimately ended up with more capacity than it needed, opening the door for outside tenants.

Anthropicis receiving a discounted rate during the initial ramp-up period covering May and June, after which the full $1.25 billion monthly fee kicks in. An Anthropic spokesperson confirmed the financial details to WIRED, while SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Why Anthropic Is Willing to Pay Such a Steep Price

The sheer scale of this financial commitment underscores just how voracious Anthropic's appetite for computing resources has become. The company's AI products — particularly its rapidly growing suite of coding tools — demand enormous processing power to function at scale. Analysts and industry watchers are taking note: Anthropic's revenue for the second quarter of 2026 is projected to surpass $10 billion, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.

In a post on X, Elon Musk noted that SpaceX is currently in conversations with other companies to strike similar arrangements, hinting at a broader strategy to monetize its surplus data center capacity.

SpaceX's Dual Monetization Play

The IPO filing frames this arrangement as a deliberate business strategy. SpaceX stated it anticipates entering additional service contracts for its computing infrastructure while simultaneously continuing to use the facilities for its own AI development needs.

"We have sufficient capacity to provide compute for our own AI models, including support of our training and inference demands, and to satisfy the obligations under these agreements," the filing reads. The company describes this as a "dual monetization strategy" designed to maximize returns on its capital investments in infrastructure.

SpaceX Eyes the Largest IPO in US History

The release of this S-1 filing marks a pivotal moment for SpaceX as it charges toward what could become the largest initial public offering in American history. The company is targeting a valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion and aims to raise around $75 billion through the listing. SpaceX filed its preliminary paperwork confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1, leaving room to incorporate regulatory feedback. The refined version released this week could still undergo further revisions before the company makes its debut on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol SPCX — a launch potentially scheduled as early as June 12.

Financially, SpaceX reported nearly $4.7 billion in revenue for the first quarter of this year, though it also logged losses of almost $4.3 billion during the same period. For the full year 2025, revenue reached $18.7 billion, but the company still posted a $4.9 billion loss, driven largely by heavy investment in AI technology and Starship rocket development.

Governance Concerns Draw Investor Scrutiny

Not everyone is celebrating the upcoming IPO. The S-1 filing has drawn sharp criticism from advocacy groups and institutional investors alarmed by the governance structure SpaceX is proposing. Excerpts reviewed by Reuters prior to the filing's release revealed that Musk is effectively the only person with the authority to remove himself from his CEO role. He would also retain commanding control over the board, with voting arrangements that could neutralize activist shareholders seeking to challenge company decisions. Additionally, SpaceX intends to invoke Texas state law provisions to shield itself from hostile takeovers and protect its executives and board members.

Major public pension funds, including those representing California, New York, and New York City employees, jointly issued a letter to Musk and SpaceX leadership describing the proposed governance framework as "novel and extreme" and calling it the "most management-favorable governance structure ever brought to the U.S. public markets at this scale."

"We acknowledge SpaceX's extraordinary technical and commercial achievements, and we recognize the role the company plays in U.S. national security and commercial space," the pension fund leaders wrote. "Its governance must at least adhere to the baseline protections upon which long-term institutional capital depends."

A coalition of other critics — including a prominent national teachers' union, AI safety researchers, and environmental organizations based near SpaceX facilities — have urged potential investors to carefully weigh the risks of backing a company where so much authority rests with a single individual.

Meme Stock Risk and Retail Investor Allocation

Another source of concern is SpaceX's reported plan to allocate roughly 30 percent of initially offered shares to retail investors — an unusually high proportion that some fear could expose the stock to meme-stock-style volatility. That said, if the IPO proceeds without major disruptions, new stock exchange regulations are expected to require certain high-traffic investment funds to automatically purchase and hold SpaceX shares, which could help both lift and stabilize the stock price over time.

What the Leaked Details Reveal

Despite the confidential nature of early S-1 filings, several details from SpaceX's prospectus leaked ahead of the official release. Reporting from The Information indicated that Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet service, generated approximately $11.4 billion in revenue last year, while also flagging a debt load that climbed to $23 billion. Reuters separately reported that SpaceX has poured more than $15 billion into developing Starship — a next-generation rocket intended to eventually surpass the company's proven Falcon 9 workhorse. The most recent Starship test launch was scheduled for Thursday.

Additional leaks touched on potential regulatory bans facing xAI in certain countries over concerns that its chatbot produced sexually abusive imagery, plans to invest heavily in domestic GPU manufacturing, and lingering questions about whether orbiting space-based data centers could ever become a viable commercial business.