SpaceX rents out its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee, to Anthropic PBC after SpaceX runs into technical difficulties using the facility for its own Grok artificial intelligence models, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg reports SpaceX decides to lease the full capacity of the Colossus 1 data center to Anthropic because its teams have trouble using the site for Grok’s development and operations.
The Next Web adds that the decision is tied to problems SpaceX faces in making the Memphis facility work for its internal AI efforts, rather than to surplus capacity. It reports that SpaceX encounters latency issues when connecting the Memphis site to two other data center campuses located more than 10 miles away, which complicates the ability to run or develop Grok across locations.
Together, the reports describe a shift in computing plans: SpaceX allocates the Memphis capacity to Anthropic and its related work, while its own Grok usage does not proceed as intended.
