In other news, the gold rush has entered a new phase as miners pivot to selling shovels.
Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
81–90 of 1001 posts
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#82Which means more Grok degradation, more severe throttling, etc. I can't understand why xAI charges 50% more per month for Grok over competitors when it doesn't even gracefully downgrade to a cheaper model when paid subscribers hit the limit.
> can't understand why xAI charges 50% more per month for Grok over competitors
One potential read is xAI knows Grok isn't going to be a Tier 1 model. So while SpaceX focusses on infrastructure, Grok bets its users like its model enough that they'll pay a premium for it, even if this curtails growth prospects.
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s only circular if it violates my narrative, of course.
It's circular when money flows from A to B and then back from B to A again. This is a series of transactions in which money flows from Google to SpaceX. There is no flow of money from SpaceX to Google. So it's not a circle.
More to the point, allegations of circular financing are about following cash. When NVIDIA invests in a company so they can buy NVIDIA chips, that raises a unique set of questions distinct from other types of conflict of interest. Affiliated parties doing business, as is the case between Google and SpaceX, has its own host of conflict-of-interest concerns. But they're distinct from those that arise in circular transactions.
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#84Tangent alert: a couple of questions for folks who know far more than I do about compute capacity and Google these days... Lately, like the past few months, I've noticed Google services (search, gmail, drive, maps) running very slowly to the point where, at the moment it happens, I always think it has to be my connection and not Google, but sure enough every time I check a couple of speed tests and they're... fine. A…
Couple of anecdotes from the last week.
Yesterday the Gmail virus scanner stopped working. For a while I couldn't download my attachments. A few minutes later it said the virus scanner was offline and download at your own risk.
Meet audio seems to be having a particularly bad week. It just doesn't work with headphones. Their testing tool indicated everything was fine. It's worked after I logged off and on. Audio quality issues are getting more common as well.
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is nothing shady or circular in the text you quoted
I avoided adding too many details, made a base assumption that folks on this topic would already be aware of google's investment in spaceX, probably should have added that too
> made a base assumption that folks on this topic would already be aware of google's investment in spaceX, probably should have added that too
Still doesn't make it circular financing. If SpaceX issued Google a dividend right after Google paid SpaceX, that would be circular.
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#86google: we are commited to carbon free data centers by 2030 ( https://sustainability.google/reports/247-carbon-free-energy... ) also google: renting capacity from a data center powered by 27 methane gas turbines on trailers https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2026/4/whitehous...
So their hands are clean, but they’re outsourcing the dirty work.
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard the harder part is to have data centers to put the nvidia hardware than getting the hardware currently.
And the secret ingridient to building those faster than others is... crime. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/15/elon-musk...
Holy shit:
> This article was amended on 16 January 2026 because a megawatt is a unit of power, not energy as an earlier version suggested.
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#88With ~$2.1B/month of GPU rental revenue, is xAI now profitable? Are all divisions of SpaceX now profitable?
Yes they should be profitable. If SpaceX maintains profitability for 12 months, they are eligible for SP 500 index inclusion, even under the old rules
Elon is pulling financial engineering black magic to make this happen.
Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
#89Which means more Grok degradation, more severe throttling, etc. I can't understand why xAI charges 50% more per month for Grok over competitors when it doesn't even gracefully downgrade to a cheaper model when paid subscribers hit the limit.
Who uses Grok? Not even SpaceX engineers that is known...
Grok is the best for researching recent events and real-time information. All the other AIs have a learning date cut-off too far in the past.
Claude accuses me of hallucinating events that happened the day before, and it's quite annoying.