Anthropic Secures xAI's Colossus-1 Compute in Surprise Cross-Rival Deal
Anthropic has signed an agreement with SpaceX to access all 300MW of compute capacity at xAI's Colossus 1 data centre in Memphis, immediately raising usage limits for Claude Pro, Max, and API subscribers.
Anthropic announced on May 6 that it has agreed to access all of the compute capacity at xAI’s Colossus 1 data centre in Memphis, Tennessee — a facility originally built to run Elon Musk’s Grok models. According to Anthropic’s official announcement, the deal gives the Claude maker access to more than 300 megawatts of capacity, equivalent to over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs, with availability expected within the month.
The announcement is notable for its competitive subtext: xAI and Anthropic are direct rivals in the frontier model space, yet the deal positions xAI’s infrastructure arm as a compute provider to a competitor. As TechCrunch noted, the arrangement effectively makes xAI a “neocloud” — monetising its hardware investments by selling capacity to the broader market rather than exclusively powering its own products.
The compute deal is part of a broader infrastructure push by Anthropic. According to the company’s announcement, it has also secured a 5GW agreement with Amazon, a 5GW agreement with Google and Broadcom, a $30 billion Azure capacity arrangement with Microsoft and NVIDIA, and a $50 billion infrastructure commitment with Fluidstack. The SpaceX/xAI deal was the catalyst for an immediate increase in usage limits for Claude Pro, Claude Max, and the Claude API, with Claude Code limits raised and peak-hour reductions removed.
What changed. Anthropic has contracted all 300MW of compute at xAI’s Colossus 1 data centre in Memphis, adding over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs to its capacity within the month, according to Anthropic’s blog post.
Why it matters. The deal immediately resolves the capacity strain Anthropic acknowledged last month — peak-hour throttling on Claude Code and the API is being lifted now. It also marks an unusual moment where compute scarcity is creating commercial relationships across competitive lines.
Builder takeaway. If your team hit rate limits on Claude Code, Opus, or API-heavy workloads in recent weeks, those ceilings are being raised. Re-test your throughput assumptions and check the updated limits in the Anthropic API dashboard.