SpaceX CEO Musk clarifies six-month lease with Anthropic despite IPO filings

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company agreed to lease its Colossus AI compute cluster to Anthropic on a 180-day (six-month) lease with a mutual 90-day cancellation notice. Musk emphasized SpaceX requested the short lease term and has not committed to years-long leasing of the resource. "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it's possible that may be what happens," Musk wrote publicly on May 27. "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" ^{[1, 2]}.

The clarification contrasts with SpaceX’s IPO filing made public May 21-28, which indicated Anthropic agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month for compute capacity at Colossus through May 2029. The IPO described the deal as a long-term cloud services agreement terminable by either party with 90 days’ notice, implying a multi-year commitment ^{[1, 3, 4, 2]}. Columbia Law School professor Eric Talley said the conflicting statements create confusion for investors attempting to value SpaceX, noting "either Musk is correct and the S-1 is materially misleading, or the S-1 is correct and Elon is up to his old hijinx" ^[4].

The original agreement was entered May 3 and detailed monthly fees through May 2029, with mutual 90-day termination rights ^[3]. SpaceX’s AI segment reported a $2.5 billion operating loss on $818 million in revenue for the March quarter, highlighting an ongoing investment phase for the business ^[1].

Musk indicated the shorter lease term was driven by the potential need to reclaim compute resources if demand rises, leaving room for flexibility. "The short term was our request, not Anthropic's," he said ^[1].

SpaceX’s public filing commitments and Musk’s latest statements conflict over the exact lease duration and obligations. Musk’s statement on May 27 emphasizes a six-month initial commitment with a 90-day cancellation clause from either side, designed to provide Anthropic a reasonable off-ramp while retaining SpaceX’s ability to reclaim capacity if necessary ^{[1, 2]}.