Data Centers In Space? AI Race Turns Weird With Anthropic-SpaceX Deal

Data centers in space.

The idea might have just moved

a little bit closer to reality.

After Anthropic unexpectedly signed a deal

with Elon Musk's company, SpaceXAI, this week

for Anthropic to use some of SpaceXAI's computing resources.

Now, Anthropic and SpaceXAI,

which is the name of the newly formed entity

that combined SpaceX and xAI, don't exactly seem

like they would've been natural partners.

Earlier this year, Musk took to X, the platform that he owns

to call Anthropic's policies around AI

misanthropic and evil and alleged without evidence,

that Anthropic's AI models showed racial and sexual biases.

But now he seems to have changed his tune,

writing on X that he had spent time with senior leaders

at Anthropic to quote, unquote,

understand what they do to ensure Claude,

which is Anthropic's model,

is good for humanity, and that he came away impressed.

And now, suddenly the two are in a tie up together

with Anthropic signing an agreement

to use computer resources

from SpaceXAI's supercomputer in Memphis.

So what is going on?

Essentially, this is just the latest deal

in a fast-growing industry that is scrambling

to find enough computers to run complex AI software.

According to pretty much everyone in the tech industry

I talk to, there just aren't enough chips and memory

and server racks and cloud computing services to go around.

And so you end up with these unlikely bedfellows,

different partnerships and circular deals

where various chip makers and hyperscalers

and AI labs are all partnering with each other.

This also happens to be a pivotal time for SpaceXAI,

which is looking to go public as soon as next month.

And this deal with Anthropic that Elon Musk just struck

could bolster SpaceXAI's credibility

while it's pitching investors on the potential gold mine

of establishing even more data centers, including in space.

There was this interesting part of the announcement

that these two companies made where SpaceXAI said

that Anthropic had quote, unquote, expressed interest

in working together to develop orbital compute capacity.

There could also be an element of

the enemy of my enemy is my friend in this deal.

Anthropic was co-founded by Dario and Daniela Amodei

and other former OpenAI employees.

Musk, meanwhile, is currently in the midst

of a courtroom battle with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

So Musk, in signing a deal with Anthropic right now

also happens to be signing a deal

with OpenAI's biggest rival.

You can read the full story on WIREd.com.