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• The Colossus 1 facility was originally part of a larger plan to power SpaceX’s AI infrastructure across multiple data centers.
• Hardware mismatches contributed to performance bottlenecks
• SpaceX is now monetizing unused capacity through computing deals while continuing its AI buildout strategy.

SpaceX (SPCX) has reportedly leased its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee, to Anthropic PBC after internal technical issues disrupted its use for artificial intelligence workloads.

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The development comes on the same day SpaceX made its Nasdaq debut, with shares opening at around $150 — an 11% premium to the IPO price — and surging as much as 30% in early trading, briefly pushing its market value above $2.2 trillion. The stock ended its first trading session up 19%. 

Hardware Mismatch Creates Bottlenecks

SpaceX had originally planned to train advanced AI models using a connected cluster of three data center campuses. But Colossus 1 faced latency issues when linked with other facilities located more than 10 miles away, reported Bloomberg.

Older networking infrastructure added to the challenge, making it difficult to support the fast synchronization required for large-scale AI training workloads.

The situation was further complicated by mixed hardware inside Colossus 1, which includes multiple generations of Nvidia chips such as Hopper and Blackwell systems, along with older accelerators.

Colossus 2 and 3 were built more uniformly around Blackwell chips, creating a mismatch that slowed overall cluster performance. In distributed AI systems, slower nodes can bottleneck faster ones, limiting total efficiency. 

The SpaceX-Anthropic Deal

In May, Anthropic announced that it struck a deal with SpaceX to use the full compute capacity of the Colossus 1 data center in Memphis. As part of the agreement, Anthropic gained access to more than 300 megawatts of compute capacity and also expressed interest in working with SpaceX to explore developing multiple gigawatts of compute capacity in space.

Under the deal, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for compute access across SpaceX’s Colossus and Colossus II facilities, amounting to roughly $45 billion over three years.

The agreement came after Musk, who merged SpaceX with his competing AI startup xAI earlier this year, had repeatedly criticized Anthropic prior to the deal, pointing to its clashes with the U.S. government.

Leasing Strategy And External Deals

Instead of continuing to operate under these constraints, SpaceX opted to lease out Colossus 1 capacity, turning unused computing power into a revenue stream.

The facility has been leased to Anthropic, while SpaceX continues to pursue external computing partnerships, including with Google. The company also retains the option to reclaim capacity if internal demand increases, stated the Bloomberg report.

SpaceX leadership has said internal AI development efforts, including Grok-related work, remain ongoing.

Musk has also said SpaceX retains the right to end its computing deal with Anthropic early, provided it gives advance notice. “If compute gets super tight, I said we might need it back at some point,” he said, reported CNBC. 

SPCX Stock: What Retail Thinks

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around SPCX stock was ‘extremely bullish’ and message volume was ‘extremely high.’ 

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<