At the beginning of this month, the AI company Anthropic reached an important computing power procurement agreement with xAI, Elon Musk's company. According to the agreement, Anthropic will lease all 300 megawatts of computing power from the Colossus1 data center near Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

This large-scale infrastructure means significant cost expenditures: starting now, Anthropic plans to pay xAI 1.25 billion dollars per month until May 2029. Notably, during the first two months when xAI's capacity is gradually increasing, Anthropic will enjoy a discounted price.

Data Center Server (2)

The specific details of this transaction come from SpaceX's prospectus submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). SpaceX mentioned in the document that the agreement "allows us to turn unused computing power into revenue." The contract also includes the right to terminate the agreement with 90 days' notice, leaving room for flexible adjustments between the two parties in the face of future market changes.

At the same time, the document states that the company "is expected to sign more similar contracts," implying that this leasing model may be promoted on a larger scale. Through this cooperation, xAI plays a "hybrid role" in the artificial intelligence market, both as a builder of infrastructure for its own use and as a supplier of services to third parties.

This emerging business model is called "neocloud," whose core idea is: when its own demand is not enough to fill all computing power capacity, AI companies can act as "cloud service providers" to rent out excess resources, thereby offsetting the high infrastructure investment. SpaceX believes that this is an efficient way to utilize resources and emphasizes in the prospectus, "We believe this dual revenue strategy can provide multiple pathways for capital returns."

However, industry observers have noticed that xAI seems to have a "surplus" in computing power construction, and at a critical moment before going public, it needs to increase asset utilization and visibility of income through external sales. More importantly, xAI's flagship AI assistant Grok recently experienced a significant drop in user numbers, leading to a large number of idle servers, which allows xAI to sell these resources to competitors including Anthropic.

Against the backdrop of intense competition in AI infrastructure and capital market expectations, this long-term computing power deal not only secures key resources for Anthropic in the coming years but also opens up a new path for xAI and its parent company SpaceX to tell a growth story through "selling computing power."

Key Points:

🌟 Anthropic has signed a computing power leasing agreement with xAI, expecting to pay over 40 billion dollars in the future.  

💡 The agreement allows both parties to make flexible adjustments in the future market changes, with a 90-day termination clause.  

📈 xAI is currently using idle computing power to rent out resources to external customers to improve asset utilization and income.