Marketplace Tech Anthropic’s new, powerful allies: Elon Musk and SpaceX
14 snips
May 8, 2026 
Caroline O'Donovan, senior technology reporter who covers AI and tech policy, breaks down Anthropic’s new access to SpaceX’s Colossus One and why that pairing raised eyebrows. She unpacks the timing amid Elon Musk’s trial with OpenAI. Other highlights include Apple’s $250M settlement over AI claims and GameStop’s surprise bid for eBay.
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Anthropic Solved Outages By Buying SpaceX Compute
- Anthropic's deal with SpaceX buys more compute to address service blackouts from rapid growth.
- Dario Amodei and Anthropic framed the problem as compute limits causing outages at their developer conference this week.
Values-Focused Anthropic Partnered With Musk Amid Rivalry
- The Anthropic–SpaceX tie feels surprising because Anthropic positions itself as values-focused while Elon Musk is publicly fighting OpenAI.
- The timing amid Musk's federal lawsuit against OpenAI made the partnership read like a pointed move in the AI rivalry.
Selling Compute Doesn't Kill XAI's Ambitions
- Selling compute to a competitor doesn't mean XAI gave up; Musk said Grok is 'catching up' under oath at trial.
- Caroline notes SpaceX can both sell infrastructure and still develop its own AI product Grok.