Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk acknowledged on X that he misjudged Anthropic, now recognizing it as the AI industry’s current leader
- SpaceX and Anthropic finalized a computing agreement in May valued at $1.25 billion monthly extending to 2029
- Earlier this year, Musk criticized Anthropic as “woke,” “hypocritical,” and incapable of success
- The company filed confidentially for a U.S. public offering in June following a valuation approaching $1 trillion
- Anthropic’s Claude coding capabilities and Cowork platform fueled its accelerated expansion recently
In a surprising about-face, Elon Musk has abandoned his persistent attacks on Anthropic, now declaring the artificial intelligence company the industry’s reigning champion. The unexpected acknowledgment appeared in a Thursday post on X, where Musk admitted he had “clearly wrong about Anthropic.”
“They are obviously currently the leader in AI,” Musk stated. “No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon.”
Dramatic Pivot After Sustained Criticism
This newfound admiration marks a complete departure from Musk’s previous stance. Just months ago in January, he mocked that Anthropic’s “fate is to be misanthropic.” By February, he leveled accusations that the firm was stealing training data “at massive scale.” During that same period, he declared that “Anthropic hates Western Civilization.”
Come March, Musk labeled Claude as “woke” and charged Anthropic with injecting left-leaning political bias into its AI systems. Last September, he dismissed the company entirely, claiming that “winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic.”
This transformation in perspective coincided with a substantial commercial arrangement between the companies. SpaceX and Anthropic unveiled their computing collaboration in May, granting Anthropic access to over 300 megawatts of computational power from SpaceX’s Colossus 1 facility. This translates 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 side to terminate with 90 days’ advance notification.
Musk Pledges Not to Terminate Computing Access
Musk’s Thursday statement responded to an X user who proposed that SpaceX could “kill Anthropic” by terminating their computing arrangement. Musk rejected that suggestion outright.
“I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor,” he explained. “That’s not my style.”
On May 6, when the collaboration became public, Musk revealed he had met with Anthropic’s leadership team and found the experience enlightening. “Everyone I met was highly competent and cared a great deal about doing the right thing,” he posted.
Despite his praise, Musk continues to regard Anthropic as competition. On May 26, he pointed out that his AI company has operated for only three years, half of Anthropic’s lifespan, expressing interest in comparing their positions after another three-year period.
AnthropIC emerged in 2021 when former OpenAI leadership, including CEO Dario Amodei, launched the venture. Its Claude Code solution attracted significant interest from the developer community, while the Cowork offering broadened adoption among general business users.
The organization submitted a confidential IPO filing in June for U.S. markets, shortly after completing a financing round that placed its valuation near $965 billion. Neither Anthropic nor SpaceX representatives provided comments when contacted.
Get 3 Free Stock Ebooks
Discover top-performing stocks in AI, Crypto, and Technology with expert analysis.
- Top 10 AI Stocks - Leading AI companies
- Top 10 Crypto Stocks - Blockchain leaders
- Top 10 Tech Stocks - Tech giants
