Elon Musk Admits He Was 'Clearly Wrong' About Anthropic AI Company
The Tesla CEO praised Anthropic as the current AI leader and reaffirmed his commitment to ethical competition despite a business relationship with the rival firm.
Elon Musk publicly acknowledged on social media that he had misjudged Anthropic, praising the AI company as the current leader in artificial intelligence while reaffirming his commitment to fair competition despite a business relationship with one of its rivals.
What Happened
Musk posted on X on June 9 that he was 'clearly wrong' about Anthropic. In September, he had written that 'Winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic,' expressing skepticism about the startup's prospects. His latest post marked a dramatic reversal, stating Anthropic is 'obviously currently the leader in AI' and that no company has released a model as good as its Mythos/Fable series, with expectations for a strong follow-up in Mythos 2. Musk also addressed speculation that he could leverage Anthropic's compute agreement with SpaceXAI—his AI infrastructure venture—to disadvantage a competitor, writing: 'I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor. That's not my style.'
Why It Matters
The admission carries weight for Tesla and SpaceX stakeholders because it involves Musk directly acknowledging misjudgment while simultaneously reinforcing his competitive philosophy. Anthropic has been operating under a GPU lease agreement with SpaceXAI initiated in May, giving the AI company access to critical computing resources for training frontier models. Some observers had speculated that this dependency could give Musk leverage over a rival. His public commitment to ethical competition aligns with precedents set by Tesla open-sourcing its EV patents in 2014 and opening the Supercharger network to competing manufacturers—moves designed to accelerate technology adoption rather than protect proprietary advantages.
The Bottom Line
Musk's reversal on Anthropic highlights his willingness to publicly correct past assessments while positioning SpaceXAI as a competitor advancing alongside, not against, other AI developers. The stance underscores a philosophy of competing through innovation rather than leveraging market dependencies, a framework that has shaped decisions across Tesla, SpaceX, and X.
