Google overpays for SpaceX compute vs Anthropic's cheaper GPU deal
Google pays $920M for 110k GPUs while Anthropic gets 220k for $1.25B.
Deep Dive
Anthropic is paying $1.25B for 220,000 GPUs at Colossus 1 and an unknown number of GPUs at Colossus 2, while Google is paying $920M for 110,000 GPUs. According to the article, even if the $1.25B covered only Colossus 1, Anthropic is paying less per GPU than Google. And assuming a 20/80 split between Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, Google is paying roughly 8X more per GPU. The post asks: "Can Google not negotiate?"
Key Points
- Anthropic spent $1.25B for 220,000 GPUs at SpaceX's Colossus 1 and 2.
- Google paid $920M for 110,000 GPUs, resulting in 2x cost per GPU.
- Even assuming a 20/80 split between Colossus phases, Google could be paying 8x more per GPU.
Why It Matters
Google's apparent overpayment for compute could weaken its AI competitiveness against Anthropic's efficient infrastructure scaling.