TLDR
- Elon Musk acknowledged on X that he was “clearly wrong about Anthropic,” now recognizing it as the AI industry’s current leader
- SpaceX and Anthropic finalized a massive compute agreement in May valued at $1.25 billion monthly through 2029
- Previously, Musk labeled Anthropic as “woke,” “hypocritical,” and claimed the company had no path to success
- The AI startup filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO in June following a valuation approaching $1 trillion
- Strong performance from Claude’s developer tools and Cowork platform fueled Anthropic’s explosive growth
In a surprising about-face, Elon Musk has abandoned his sustained attacks on Anthropic and now acknowledges the AI company as the industry’s leading force. The Tesla CEO made this admission via a post on X Thursday, openly stating he was “clearly wrong about Anthropic.”
“They are obviously currently the leader in AI,” Musk declared. “No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon.”
A Dramatic Turnaround After Sustained Criticism
This endorsement marks a stark departure from Musk’s previous rhetoric. Earlier this year in January, he mocked that Anthropic’s “fate is to be misanthropic.” By February, he was accusing the firm of “massive scale” theft of training data. During that same period, he claimed “Anthropic hates Western Civilization.”
Come March, Musk targeted Claude as “woke” and charged Anthropic with deliberately injecting progressive political bias into its AI systems. Last September, he dismissed their prospects entirely, stating that “winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic.”
This shift in attitude coincided with a substantial commercial arrangement between SpaceX and Anthropic. The companies unveiled a compute collaboration in May that grants Anthropic access to over 300 megawatts from SpaceX’s Colossus 1 facility. This translates to computing power equivalent to more than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs.
According to SpaceX’s S-1 documentation, Anthropic committed to monthly payments of $1.25 billion extending through May 2029. The agreement includes provisions allowing either company to terminate with 90 days’ advance notice.
Musk Pledges Not to Sabotage Competitor
Musk’s Thursday statement came after an X user floated the possibility that SpaceX could “kill Anthropic” by terminating compute access. Musk rejected this suggestion outright.
“I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor,” he responded. “That’s not my style.”
When the partnership went public on May 6, Musk revealed he had met with Anthropic’s leadership team and found them impressive. “Everyone I met was highly competent and cared a great deal about doing the right thing,” he shared.
Despite his newfound respect, Musk maintains a competitive stance toward Anthropic. On May 26, he emphasized that his AI company has existed for just three yearsâhalf of Anthropic’s lifespanâand expressed interest in comparing their positions after another three years pass.
Anthropie launched in 2021 under the leadership of former OpenAI executives, including CEO Dario Amodei. The company’s Claude Code offering gained significant adoption within the developer community, while its Cowork solution broadened appeal to non-technical audiences.
In June, Anthropic submitted a confidential filing for a U.S. initial public offering, coming shortly after a financing round that placed its valuation near $965 billion. Representatives from both Anthropic and SpaceX declined to comment when contacted.
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