Notes on the xAI/Anthropic data center deal

Anthropic has signed a deal with SpaceX/xAI to use all capacity from the Colossus 1 data center, which has a poor environmental record including unpermitted gas turbines that lack pollution controls and have been linked to increased hospital admissions from poor air quality. The deal also creates a potential supply chain risk (a vulnerability where a company depends on another company that could cut off essential services) since Elon Musk, who owns xAI, has stated he reserves the right to reclaim the compute if Anthropic's AI causes harm, with the criteria for 'harm' decided by Musk himself.