Baltimore, MD, Nov. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The AI race just got strange. One of Elon Musk’s biggest rivals is now paying him to run its AI.
According to SpaceX’s IPO filings, Anthropic agreed to pay SpaceX about $1.25 billion a month for computing power. The deal runs three years, through May 2029, and could total nearly $45 billion. Anthropic gets access to SpaceX’s Colossus and Colossus II AI data centers in Memphis, Tennessee.
That’s the potential value, not money already paid. Either side can end the deal with 90 days’ notice.
Still, the message is hard to miss. In a new free presentation, tech analyst James Altucher argues that Musk isn’t just trying to build the best chatbot. “Elon isn’t trying to win the AI race by launching a new product,” Altucher says. “He wants to control the AI industry from end to end.”
Your Customer Is Also Your Competitor
AI companies fight to build the smartest models and win the most users. But every one of those models needs enormous amounts of computing power, electricity and networking.
Building all of that yourself takes years. Renting it can be faster. That’s how rivals end up doing business with each other.
The Anthropic deal is a vivid example. Anthropic builds its own AI. But to run it at scale, it’s paying Musk.
How Musk Ended Up Owning the Machines
The Memphis supercomputers came to SpaceX through Musk’s AI company, xAI. Altucher points to the moment Musk combined the two. “And then just days later merged xAI with SpaceX — the largest private merger in history,” he says.
That gave SpaceX something new. “Now Elon doesn’t just have rocket to send satellites into space… he’s got the most advanced AI on earth to put on them,” Altucher says.
Altucher sees the pattern as an old one. He calls it “the exact same playbook from John D Rockefeller”: vertical integration. “Controlling all aspects of the supply chain,” Altucher says.
And Musk’s plans go far beyond Memphis. Altucher points to a SpaceX filing with the FCC that lays out plans for one million AI data center satellites in orbit. That plan still faces serious hurdles. But demand for computing on the ground shows why owning the machines is so valuable.
The Supplier Underneath the Supplier
Here’s the twist. Even a company that builds almost everything still needs outside help somewhere.
“Elon built the brain,” Altucher says. “But he did not build the nervous system.”
Every big computing system depends on parts the customer never sees. Chips get the headlines. Networking and communications gear make the chips useful. Altucher says the same is true in space. His free presentation names one small outside supplier he believes provides a key piece of that nervous system for Musk’s satellites.
In the AI race, winning customers and supplying rivals can go hand in hand. And sometimes, the biggest money goes to whoever owns the machines.
About This Presentation
The companies building AI’s smartest models still have to run them somewhere. In this free presentation, James Altucher explains why he believes Elon Musk is out to own that “somewhere,” on the ground and in orbit. He also names the overlooked supplier he believes Musk’s plan still leans on. Watch it here.
About James Altucher
James Altucher has managed hedge funds, built AI trading algorithms of his own and raised more than $100 million for a venture capital firm. That’s three decades at the highest levels of Wall Street. Along the way, he made a string of early tech calls, from NVIDIA in 2008 to SpaceX in 2012, that most people thought were crazy at the time.
Derek Warren Public Relations Manager Paradigm Press Group Email: dwarren@paradigmpressgroup.com
