xAI Opens Colossus 1 to Anthropic, Powering Claude's Next Expansion

xAI and Anthropic Form Major Compute Partnership

On May 6, 2026, xAI announced it would provide Anthropic with full access to the compute capacity at Colossus 1, its AI supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee. The facility features more than 220,000 NVIDIA H100, H200, and GB200 GPUs—making it one of the largest AI computing clusters ever built.

Immediate Impact on Claude Usage Limits

The partnership takes effect immediately: Claude Code's five-hour rate limits double for Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. For Pro and Max subscribers, peak-hour throttling on Claude Code is also removed. API rate limits for Claude Opus models see substantial increases across all subscription tiers.

Strategic Context

Anthropic recorded roughly $30 billion in annualized revenue after an 80x growth quarter in Q1 2026, straining existing compute capacity. The xAI deal supplements existing agreements—including up-to-5 GW partnerships with Amazon and Google and a $30 billion Azure capacity arrangement with Microsoft and NVIDIA. Anthropic has also expressed interest in partnering with SpaceX to develop multiple gigawatts of orbital AI compute, a step that would extend AI infrastructure beyond Earth-bound data centers.