Musk's SpaceX could become the Pentagon's next AI provider
The move could deepen the military’s reliance on Musk's services – with critics raising concerns
- SpaceX is reportedly negotiating a multibillion-dollar deal to provide AI computing capacity to the Pentagon.
- The deal would expand the Pentagon’s reliance on SpaceX beyond launches, satellite communications, and missile-tracking services.
- The talks could still fail, but recent deals with Google, Anthropic, and Reflection AI show SpaceX’s growing AI infrastructure ambitions.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
SpaceX could soon add a new customer: the Pentagon. Elon Musk’s company is reportedly negotiating a deal to provide access to AI data center capacity worth billions of dollars, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The potential agreement could see SpaceX providing computing capacity to the Defense Department in a deal worth up to several billion dollars, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ.
If the deal goes through, it would further deepen Musk’s ties with the US military and strengthen the Pentagon's relationship with SpaceX.
Currently, the company provides the Pentagon with rocket launch, satellite communications, and missile-tracking services. Expanding that reliance into AI infrastructure could amplify concerns related to the military’s dependence on Musk’s services.
The report says SpaceX isn’t simply interested in the Pentagon as a customer – it also wants to compete directly with AI cloud providers like CoreWeave by selling computing power to AI companies at lower prices.
Discussions between the two sides are ongoing and could still fall apart, according to the WSJ.
This would not be SpaceX's first major computing infrastructure deal. Earlier in June, the company struck a $30 billion cloud-computing deal with Google. Under the terms, Google will pay $920 million per month from October 2026 through June 2029 for access to Nvidia chips and related AI computing capacity.
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Anthropic also agreed to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 to purchase computing power at SpaceX's Colossus data centers in Memphis, Tennessee. Anthropic will receive access to more than 300 megawatts of compute capacity, which it said would directly improve capacity for its paid Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers.
Reflection AI will also pay roughly $150 million per month starting July 1st, 2026, to access Nvidia GB300 chips at Musk's Colossus 2 data center. The deal could be worth a total of $6.3 billion if it runs through 2029.
