SpaceX IPO Boosted by Anthropic and Google Contracts Worth $21.7 Billion Monthly

Author: Ada, TechFlow by Shenchao

SpaceX is in the pre-IPO pricing phase, and two monthly billing contracts for massive computing power have been disclosed in U.S. SEC filings. The first is the Anthropic contract, revealed in the May 20 S-1 filing, worth $1.25 billion per month, leasing all computing capacity from xAI’s Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee. The second is the Google contract, disclosed in the June 5 S-1 amendment, worth $920 million per month, leasing approximately 110,000 Nvidia GPUs.

The two contracts total $2.17 billion per month, or $26 billion annually, and if not terminated early, the three-year contract value exceeds $70 billion. SpaceX's official description of the Anthropic contract in its S-1 filing is “enabling us to monetize idle compute capacity in our infrastructure,” placing the word “idle” at the core.

SpaceX's xAI division reported an operating loss of $2.47 billion in the first quarter of 2026. According to data disclosed in SpaceX's S-1, the division's AI capital expenditures amounted to $12.7 billion in 2025 and an additional $7.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Based on figures compiled from the S-1 by BitMEX, SpaceX's cumulative deficit reached $41.3 billion as of the pricing date.

The turning point occurred on April 1, when SpaceX confidentially submitted its IPO registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The S-1 was publicly disclosed on May 20, along with the Anthropic contract; an S-1/A amendment was filed on June 1; the share price was set at $135 on June 3; the roadshow began on June 4; the Google contract was disclosed on June 5; pricing was finalized on June 11; and Nasdaq trading commenced on June 12 under the ticker symbol SPCX.

The Indian financial platform IndMoney’s interpretation of this timeline hits the mark: “Three weeks ago, xAI appeared to be one of SpaceX’s biggest financial burdens; now, it generates approximately $2.17 billion in monthly compute revenue from two creditworthy clients. This isn’t just embellishing the story—it’s a structural rewrite.”

The disclosure windows for the two contracts were highly concentrated: the Anthropic contract was disclosed 22 days before the IPO pricing, and the Google contract was disclosed 6 days before the IPO pricing.

The underlying assets supporting these two contracts are facilities that Musk has already emptied.

Colossus 1 is located in Memphis, Tennessee, and was built by xAI in just 122 days in December 2024. It is equipped with over 220,000 Nvidia GPUs (a mix of H100, H200, and GB200 models) and has a power capacity of 300 megawatts. This facility was originally designed as the core computing infrastructure for training xAI’s large model, Grok.

However, before signing with Anthropic, Colossus 1’s utilization had dropped to approximately 11%. DataCenterDynamics cited Musk himself stating: “After that, leasing Colossus 1 to Anthropic was acceptable to me because SpaceXAI had already moved its training workloads to Colossus 2.”

xAI has deployed multiple data centers around Memphis. Colossus 2 went live in January 2026, and the company has selected Southaven as the site for its third data center. Additionally, xAI purchased adjacent land for $659 million to build another facility. Grok, the AI assistant originally powered by Colossus 1, has seen a sustained decline in usage recently. According to TechCrunch, usage of xAI’s flagship AI assistant, Grok, has dropped significantly over the past few months, freeing up servers that the company is now selling to one of its closest competitors.

The Google contract, disclosed later in time but closer to the IPO window, contains several structural details worth unpacking.

According to SpaceX’s June 5 SEC filing, the contract value is $9.2 billion per month, covering the period from October 2026 to June 2029. SpaceX must complete delivery by September 2026; otherwise, Google may terminate the contract or accept fewer GPUs. Starting in 2027, either party may terminate the agreement with 90 days’ notice. The leased assets consist of approximately 110,000 Nvidia GPUs.

Google stated to The Wall Street Journal: "This is a short-term, timely arrangement to ensure we have bridging capacity to meet the surge in demand from our agency platform, Gemini Enterprise—which has exceeded our expectations."

The choice of the terms "short-term" and "bridging capacity" contrasts with SpaceX's prospectus, which classifies this contract under "contractual monthly recurring revenue," indicating that the two parties do not fully agree on the characterization of this contract.

The background of the contract also involves equity relationships: Google itself was an early investor in SpaceX, holding approximately 5% equity, and Google executive Donald Harrison serves on SpaceX’s board. This means Google has a direct financial interest in SpaceX’s IPO pricing.

The Anthropic contract is the largest in amount, disclosed earliest, and most closely watched of the two contracts.

According to SpaceX’s S-1, the contract amount is $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, with discounted pricing for the first two months. Either party may terminate with 90 days’ prior notice. The total contract value exceeds $40 billion. French AI media ActuIA estimates the implied cost at approximately $7.78 per GPU/hour.

Anthropic is leasing the full computing power of Colossus 1 for inference workloads, not model training. According to Basenor, this computing power will be used to expand usage limits for Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers. This distinction is critical: leasing an competitor’s computing power for inference (responding to user dialogue requests) represents a fundamentally different type of dependency than leasing computing power to train one’s own models.

A horizontal comparison of contract sizes provides a sense of scale: according to public reports, CoreWeave’s computing power contract with OpenAI is approximately $11.9 billion over five years; the size of Anthropic’s contract with xAI/SpaceX is about 6.3 times larger.

Another layer of context behind the contract is Musk’s previous public remarks about Anthropic. Earlier this year, Musk publicly referred to Anthropic as “evil.” Less than a few months separated his public statements from signing the largest single contract in AI computing history.

There is a striking contrast worth illustrating on the same chart between the common structure of the two contracts—either party may terminate after 90 days’ notice—and the IPO valuation narrative surrounding SpaceX.

The standard logic for data center financing typically relies on stable cash flows from "long-term anchor clients," with typical terms including lock-in contracts of more than 10 years, aligned with配套的电力,土建和折旧周期. The exit clauses in the contracts with Anthropic and Google deviate from this standard.

Both parties provided soft justifications for these two contracts: Anthropic’s use case is for inference workloads (flexibly schedulable, with demand fluctuating based on subscription volume); Google’s official characterization is “short-term bridging capacity.” However, SpaceX’s S-1 includes this under “contracted monthly recurring revenue,” presenting to IPO investors a steady, month-by-month stream of contract income.

SpaceX’s IPO pricing also includes several underlying assumptions. According to a CNBC report on June 3, the $1.77 trillion valuation "assumes the completion of the EchoStar spectrum and Cursor-related transactions." Morningstar’s research concluded that SpaceX is "overvalued" and recommended investors wait until after the IPO before considering a purchase. Motley Fool analyst Adam Spatacco advised investors to "stay on the sidelines initially," citing that the company is only offering approximately 4% of its shares to the public, with additional shares from early investors and employees set to unlock within six months after the IPO.

For the underwriting, Goldman Sachs led, with Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase following, totaling 21 banks involved. Retail investors received an allocation of up to 30%, three times the typical level for mega-cap IPOs (around 10%). SpaceX completed a 5-for-1 stock split on May 4.

After its listing on June 12, the market will provide the first pricing for this "reimagined xAI narrative."