I attended Anthropic’s developer conference this week with Stephen Council from Business Insider. He’s a great writer and a pleasure to collaborate with, so check him out if you can.
The big highlight was Anthropic’s deal with SpaceX to rent AI computing power. If you’re using Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot, the speed and efficiency you experience are thanks to this partnership with Elon Musk’s company.
In a surprising twist, CEO Dario Amodei, who previously hinted at concerns about too many compute deals by rivals, has now taken a page from OpenAI’s playbook. The demand for AI is skyrocketing, but the available computing power isn’t keeping pace. This mismatch led to outages and limits on usage, frustrating many developers.
Amodei acknowledged these challenges during his talk, stating, “We’ve had difficulties with compute. We’re sorry if it takes some time, but we’re going to keep going to acquire as much as we can.”
After securing the SpaceX deal, Anthropic eased some of the limits on its services, especially Claude Code, which had seen a shift of developers moving to OpenAI due to fewer restrictions there.
Throughout the conference, it became clear that many in tech are hungry for more AI capacity. One startup CEO told me he called a Google executive to ask for more Gemini tokens, which are vital for AI tasks. The demand is so high that an Anthropic executive admitted they underestimated it, scrambling to adapt as usage surged.
If Anthropic continues its current growth trajectory, it could soon become one of the highest-revenue companies globally. Stephen noted the pace of innovation at the conference, recalling that in his experience with tech events, Anthropic’s rapid changes were unusual. From creeeping development timelines to fast-tracked features, they’re redefining the norm.
This surge in AI highlights a broader trend; according to a recent report by McKinsey, AI adoption has doubled since 2020, and 63% of organizations are currently using AI in their operations. As this technology evolves, companies face both exciting opportunities and significant challenges in keeping up.
For a deeper dive into AI trends and impacts, check out this report from McKinsey.
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