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Hey Grok, Is Elon Giving Up on A.I.?

A surprising deal with Anthropic is raising questions about whether Musk’s xAI is abandoning the frontier model arms race to focus on neocloud services instead—including launching G.P.U.s into space.

Elon Musk
Of course, Elon’s pivot also raises questions about the future of Grok, and whether xAI is meaningfully diverting from its foundational mission. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Ian Krietzberg
May 14, 2026

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Last week, Elon Musk threw the tech industry for a loop when he revealed that SpaceX, which recently acquired xAI, had cut a deal worth as much as $4 million in annual revenue to lease Anthropic the entire capacity of its Colossus 1 data center. Not three months earlier, Musk had called Anthropic, an A.I. archrival, “evil.” Now it appears he’s becoming their data landlord.