Elon Musk has created confusion among SpaceX investors by posting details about the company's partnership with Anthropic on X that weren't included in the company's initial public offering prospectus. The discrepancy centers on the terms of a data center lease worth potentially billions of dollars, and it's raising red flags about how thoroughly SpaceX has disclosed its finances to the public.

What Exactly Did Musk Say That Contradicts the IPO Filing?

SpaceX filed for its initial public offering a week ago, and days before the company was scheduled to begin pitching to investors, Musk took to X late Wednesday to clarify details about SpaceX's recent partnership with competing artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. The problem is that what he said doesn't match what SpaceX told regulators.

Earlier this month, SpaceX announced it was leasing unused computing capacity at its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee, to Anthropic. According to SpaceX's IPO prospectus, Anthropic agreed to pay SpaceX "$1.25 billion per month through May 2029, with capacity ramping in May and June 2026 at a reduced fee." The filing also stated that "the agreement may be terminated by either party upon 90 days' notice".

But in his X post, Musk wrote something different. He stated that "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years," and described the deal instead as a "180 day lease with 90 day notice mutual cancellation thereafter." The prospectus said nothing about the deal potentially ending in just six months.

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Why Does This Matter for Investors?

The difference between a three-year contract worth up to $45 billion and a six-month lease worth substantially less represents a major financial consideration for anyone thinking about buying SpaceX stock. To put this in perspective, SpaceX's total revenue in 2025 was just $18.7 billion, so this compute capacity lease could represent a significant portion of the company's income.

SpaceX is also entering a new business line by leasing compute capacity to other companies, competing with so-called neocloud providers such as Nebius and CoreWeave. Whether that revenue stream is stable and long-term or temporary and short-term makes a huge difference in how investors should value the company.

"The odd thing is that either Musk is correct and the S-1 is materially misleading, or the S-1 is correct and Elon is up to his old hijinx. But more than that it's confusing to investors who are trying (best they can) to put a valuation on SpaceX," said Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School and expert on corporate governance.

Eric Talley, Professor at Columbia Law School

Some investors are already hesitant about buying into what would be the largest initial public offering on record, backing a company valued at over $1 trillion while it burns billions of dollars every quarter. Musk's post raises additional questions about whether SpaceX's financial disclosures are complete and accurate.

What Other Disclosure Problems Has SpaceX's IPO Filing Revealed?

The Anthropic compute deal isn't the only area where analysts have flagged gaps in SpaceX's IPO prospectus. Franco Granda, an analyst at PitchBook, identified several critical omissions in a report following the publication of the filing.

• Subscriber Churn: SpaceX did not disclose how many customers are canceling subscriptions to its services, a key metric for evaluating business health.
• Unit Economics for Falcon 9: The company failed to break down the profitability of individual Falcon 9 rockets, SpaceX's partially reusable launch vehicle.
• AI Segment Details: SpaceX provided no granular information about subscriptions to its Grok chatbot, its X social network, or the utilization rate of its 1.0 gigawatt of deployed computing capacity.

The AI portion of SpaceX is particularly difficult for investors to evaluate. Musk founded xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI in the generative AI market. While xAI remains a niche player, Musk valued the business at $250 billion in February, when he merged it with SpaceX in a deal that gave the combined entity a valuation of $1.25 trillion.

During the first quarter of 2026, SpaceX's capital expenditures totaled $10.1 billion, more than doubling from a year earlier. Of that amount, $7.7 billion was tied to xAI, according to the prospectus. The AI unit, now known as SpaceXAI, recorded a $2.5 billion operating loss in the quarter.

How Is SpaceX Trying to Monetize Its Expensive AI Infrastructure?

By leasing its compute capacity to Anthropic, SpaceX was essentially acknowledging that its own AI models and services haven't generated strong demand, and that the company isn't positioned to fully utilize the costly infrastructure it has built. Musk explained in his X post that SpaceX wanted to maintain flexibility to reclaim the capacity if needed.

"We won't leave them hanging and will provide a reasonable off-ramp. But if compute gets super tight I said we might need it back at some point," wrote Musk.

Elon Musk, Founder of xAI and SpaceX

Ark Invest's Cathie Wood, a prominent SpaceX investor, praised Musk's move to monetize the compute infrastructure. She estimated that the Anthropic deal would bring in $5 billion to $6 billion in annual revenue, allowing SpaceXAI to pivot from massive losses to significant profitability as a neocloud provider. However, that estimate was made before the IPO filing disclosed an even larger number, and well before Musk's clarification this week.

What Happens Next With SpaceX's IPO?

Ann Lipton, a law professor at the University of Colorado, noted that SpaceX will need to address the discrepancy as it amends its prospectus ahead of the offering. She suggested that the company should "file the tweet with an explanation" to regulators, and noted that while Musk's post does appear to contradict the filing, the differences may be reconcilable.

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"Usually this is handled by filing an update separately with the Securities and Exchange Commission," explained Lipton.

Ann Lipton, Law Professor at the University of Colorado

The timing of Musk's clarification, coming just days before SpaceX was scheduled to begin pitching to investors, adds another layer of complexity to what is already shaping up to be one of the most scrutinized initial public offerings in history. For investors trying to value a company that combines rockets, satellites, social media, and artificial intelligence, clarity on financial terms is essential.