xAI is looking more like a datacentre REIT than a frontier lab

xAI has signed massive partnerships with Anthropic ($1.25bn/month) and Google ($920mn/month) to provide GPU computing capacity, positioning itself more as a profitable infrastructure provider than a frontier AI lab. The deals are commercially sensible given severe GPU shortages across the industry and xAI's proven ability to build datacenters rapidly, though potential conflicts of interest exist given Elon Musk's legal disputes with OpenAI and Google's stake in SpaceX's upcoming IPO. If the agreements continue for 18 months, xAI could recoup all its capital expenditure while retaining significant unused capacity.