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

Earlier this month, xAI signed a large compute woody with Anthropic, pledging billions of dollars a period for exclusive usage of the company’s Colossus cluster. It was a coup for some companies, giving xAI immoderate much-needed gross and helping Anthropic drawback up successful the never-ending contention for compute.

But this greeting connected X, Elon Musk downplayed precisely however overmuch SpaceX had committed to the deal.

“SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, though it’s imaginable that whitethorn beryllium what happens,” helium said, replying to a user. “This is simply a 180 time lease with 90 time announcement communal cancellation thereafter. The abbreviated word was our request, not Anthropic’s. We won’t permission them hanging and volition supply a tenable off-ramp, but if compute gets ace choky I said we mightiness request it backmost astatine immoderate point.”

Musk’s connection straight contradicts SpaceX’s recent S-1 filing, which confirms the modular 90-day cancellation but presents the woody arsenic a three-year agreement. Page F-62 of the filing reads:

On May 3, 2026, the Company entered into a unreality services statement with Anthropic PBC, an AI probe and improvement nationalist payment corporation, with respect to entree to compute capacity. Pursuant to this agreement, the lawsuit has agreed to wage a monthly interest done May 2029, with capableness ramping successful May 2026 astatine a reduced fee. The statement whitethorn beryllium terminated by either enactment upon 90 days’ notice. The lawsuit volition clasp ownership and intelligence spot rights successful its content, AI models, and related data.

The cardinal constituent present is that Anthropic “has agreed to wage a monthly interest done May 2029” — a beauteous straightforward statement of a three-year lease. The aforesaid connection is repeated connected F-96 and successful somewhat varied signifier (“the lawsuit has agreed to wage america $1.25 cardinal per period done May 2029”) connected pages 13 and 146, truthful it’s not arsenic if determination was a typo.

xAI did not respond to a petition for clarification.

Maybe we tin quibble astir whether Anthropic agreeing to wage for a work means the aforesaid happening arsenic SpaceX agreeing to supply that service, but that’s not usually what “lease” means. And wherefore person a one-way lock-in if either enactment tin terminate the woody with 3 months’ announcement anyway?

I don’t person the woody successful beforehand of me, truthful I don’t cognize what it says — and neither SpaceX nor Anthropic is saying thing astir the duration of the woody successful their announcements. Still, determination should beryllium a beauteous straightforward information of the substance here, and it’s not the benignant of happening you privation to marque mendacious statements astir during a company’s quiescent period.

As always, we should enactment that the SEC astir apt volition not bash thing — and adjacent if they did, Elon astir apt wouldn’t care. But this benignant of does look similar a worldly misrepresentation made portion selling a security, which is atrocious karma astatine the precise least.

Sean O’Kane contributed reporting to this article.