Notes on the xAI/Anthropic data center deal
a day ago
- #Corporate partnerships
- #Environmental impact
- #AI infrastructure
- Anthropic announced a deal to use the full capacity of the SpaceX/xAI Colossus 1 data center.
- The Colossus 1 data center has a poor environmental record, including operating gas turbines without proper permits or pollution controls, linked to increased hospital admissions.
- Andy Masley, an expert critical of data center misinformation, advised against using this specific data center, noting it is a bad look amid political controversies over AI data centers.
- xAI is not giving up on its own models; it retains the larger Colossus 2 data center for its work, while leasing Colossus 1 to Anthropic.
- xAI recently deprecated Grok 4.1 Fast and other models with short notice, causing frustration among users like SpeechMap.
- Elon Musk expressed support for leasing Colossus 1 to Anthropic after being impressed by their efforts to ensure Claude is 'good for humanity,' but reserves the right to reclaim compute if the AI harms humanity.