An intriguing development with potentially major implications for both the artificial intelligence (AI) and space industries has emerged. Elon Musk's SpaceX has joined hands with Anthropic. While the deal appears on the surface to be a simple infrastructure lease, a closer look reveals that Musk and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are pursuing very different dreams.
Grok in Crisis: Provocation Alone Wasn't Enough
The significance of the SpaceX-Anthropic partnership begins with the current state of Musk's AI flagship, Grok. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Grok is now widely viewed as falling significantly behind rapidly growing rival models. Once in the spotlight for its integration with X (formerly Twitter) and its unconventional conversational features, Grok's recent growth has slowed noticeably.
According to data analytics firm Appmagic, Grok's downloads peaked at 20 million in January before falling more than half to 8.3 million in April. The paid user ratio is particularly worth noting. According to a survey of 260,000 U.S. AI users and workers conducted by research firm Recon Analytics, Grok's paid user share stood at 0.174% in the second quarter of this year, virtually unchanged from 0.173% a year earlier. By contrast, the gap with ChatGPT, which exceeded 6%, has widened sharply. Grok's provocative updates have also triggered external troubles, including regulatory probes.
Anthropic's Claude to Run on Empty Colossus Servers
As a result, Grok appears to lack sufficient internal computing demand and is failing to fully utilize its massive Colossus data center. The core of the Anthropic partnership is that SpaceX will lease idle computing power from the "Colossus 1" data center in Memphis, Tennessee, to Anthropic.
Anthropic, led by Amodei, is currently expanding at a formidable pace in the enterprise market. According to one survey, 48% of corporate respondents said they use Anthropic's Claude. That figure has more than doubled from 21% a year earlier. By contrast, only 7% said they would continue using Grok.
For Amodei, this deal effectively secures a "computing supply line" tied directly to survival. Through the agreement, Anthropic will gain access to more than 300 megawatts (MW) of power capacity and over 220,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) within a month.
Even after leasing out Colossus 1, SpaceX still has Colossus 2, an even larger AI infrastructure. Colossus 2 is the world's first 1-gigawatt (GW)-class AI cluster, with a reported total investment of $18 billion (about 26 trillion won). In building it, SpaceX demonstrated outstanding execution capabilities as an AI infrastructure operator. While completing a data center typically takes more than two years, Colossus took less than a year. Colossus 2 took less than 10 months from land acquisition to operation. The secret lies in using gas turbines to solve power shortages. A gas turbine generates electricity by spinning a turbine with high-pressure gas produced from burning natural gas. More than 40 mobile gas turbines have been installed near Colossus 2. Through this, a 1.2GW dedicated power grid—comparable to the capacity of one nuclear power plant—has been built.
Musk's Test for Space Data Center Profitability
The partnership between the two companies is not just about utilization of AI model computing for Claude and Grok. According to Samsung Securities, the deal can be analyzed as a highly strategic move to prove the profitability of the "space data center" SpaceX is envisioning.
Currently, the market focuses only on the economics of space data centers, such as launch costs. But for Musk, an even more important question has been: "Who will actually pay to use servers in space?" While SpaceX has dramatically reduced launch costs through global rocket reusability, securing potential customers willing to use space data centers themselves was a remaining challenge—one this deal effectively addresses.
In other words, it mitigates risks that could arise in the distant future. Once Starship's mass launches resolve the economics, the industry will ultimately need a profitable business model to bloom. In that sense, this lease agreement serves to highlight SpaceX's value as a space infrastructure provider.
In fact, following Anthropic, Google is also pursuing cooperation with SpaceX. According to a WSJ report on the 12th, Google is in talks with SpaceX over rocket launch contracts to build data centers in Earth orbit. Google is an early investor in SpaceX and currently holds a 6.1% stake, with Don Harrison, president of Google's global partnerships, serving on the SpaceX board. Google announced a space data center plan called "Project Suncatcher" last year.
In sum, the cooperation between Elon Musk and Dario Amodei is the result of a precise alignment of each side's needs. Amodei has secured a foundation to consolidate Claude's dominance, while Musk has carved out a new position as an AI infrastructure provider whose reach can extend even into space.
