SpaceX and Anthropic deal reportedly grows to $84.5 billion

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Oct 3, 2026, 21:10 UTC

Around October 3, 2026, reports emerged that a commercial contract between SpaceX and Anthropic had grown to as much as $84.5 billion, nearly doubling from its previous reported value. The deal was covered by outlets including Moneywise, which highlighted the striking contrast between the contract's expansion and Elon Musk's public characterization of Anthropic's AI as "evil." Separately, a 24/7 Wall St. piece revisited a forecast Musk had previously made, that SpaceX's AI revenue would surpass all other SpaceX revenue streams by September 2026, examining whether that prediction had held.

The tension at the center of this story is difficult to ignore. Musk's xAI, the company behind the Grok models, competes directly with Anthropic in the enterprise and consumer AI markets. For SpaceX, a separate Musk-led company, to be deepening a multibillion-dollar relationship with that same competitor raises questions about how cleanly Musk's various ventures operate as independent entities. The $84.5 billion figure, if accurate, would make this one of the largest reported AI infrastructure or services contracts on record, and the near-doubling of the deal's value in a short period points to how quickly commercial AI spending is scaling. Whether SpaceX is providing compute, logistics, satellite connectivity, or some combination of services to Anthropic has not been specified in the available reporting.

None of the three camps, Pro-AI, Anti-AI, or Middle Ground, had published reactions to this story at the time of writing. Pro-AI voices would typically treat a deal of this scale as validation that AI infrastructure investment is entering a new phase, citing the dollar figure as evidence of genuine enterprise demand. Anti-AI observers would likely focus on the governance implications, specifically whether Musk's simultaneous criticism of Anthropic and financial entanglement with it through SpaceX represents a conflict of interest that warrants scrutiny. Middle Ground commentators would probably argue the story exposes how market incentives routinely override stated ideological positions in the AI industry, using the contradiction between Musk's rhetoric and SpaceX's contracts as a case study.

The claim most worth watching is whether SpaceX's AI revenue actually exceeded its other revenue streams by September 2026, as Musk had predicted. If that figure is disclosed or credibly reported, it would either validate his earlier confidence or reframe the Anthropic contract as a sign that SpaceX is actively chasing AI revenue it has not yet secured on its own.