xAI and Anthropic sign a deal, and investors aren't sure why

xAI, Elon Musk's company, has struck a deal with Anthropic, one of its leading rivals in developing large language models. The hosts of the Equity podcast voiced skepticism about the real value of the agreement.

What we know about the deal

Unfortunately, neither company has disclosed the details of the agreement. It is unclear whether this is a strategic partnership, an investment, a merger, or something else entirely. Amid a flood of announcements and rumors in the AI industry, such scarcity of information raises questions among investors and analysts.

TechCrunch and the hosts of the Equity podcast expressed skepticism about the real value of the deal. In an industry where competition is the main engine of innovation, joining forces with a direct competitor requires a very strong justification, and none has appeared so far.

Why the skepticism

xAI develops the Grok model, which competes directly with Anthropic's Claude. Both companies are fighting for the same users, investors and research talent. Why team up in such a situation?

Possible explanations:

• SpaceX's deep pockets allow it to invest in a competitor
• Strategic control over the development of Claude
• Exchange of technology and data for training models
• Regulatory reasons that are not discussed publicly

But without official details, all of this is just guesswork.

SpaceX and the bigger picture

The big question is how SpaceX fits into this story. The company already works on rockets, satellites and Starlink. Why is its owner putting money into AI through xAI and now through Anthropic? Perhaps to integrate AI into SpaceX systems, but this remains unconfirmed.

"This is a strange deal at a strange time" — this is the kind of

reaction that dominates the investment community.

The context of the race

Against the backdrop of intense competition among OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta* and other leaders, the agreement looks unusual. If it is simply an investment with no real merging of development work, it may not change market dynamics at all.

What this means

Investors are waiting for more information to understand whether this is a strategic innovation or a financial maneuver. For now, the deal raises more questions than it answers.

*Meta is designated as an extremist organization and banned in Russia.