“Right now, there appears to be roughly $100 billion or so in annual compute spend, with OpenAI representing around $50 billion (per their statements in the Musk trial), and Anthropic likely spending similar amounts.”
Our reading:
There appears to be roughly $100 billion or so in annual compute spend, with OpenAI at around $50 billion per its statements in the Musk trial and Anthropic likely spending similar amounts.
Assessment: Supported
What happened
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Supported
The evidence matches what they said.
Judged on a plain reading. They named no measure, so we used the reading a typical informed reader would take. It is spelled out under “How we judged it”.
Evidence up to . Checked .
Why
The firm, sourced part of this claim is that OpenAI's annual compute spend is around $50 billion, per its statements in the Musk trial. Reuters reports that on May 5, 2026, OpenAI president Greg Brockman testified that OpenAI expects to spend $50 billion on computing power this year. That matches the claim. The $100 billion total is hedged with 'appears' and the Anthropic figure with 'likely'. They are estimates, so they are not scored. On the part that can be checked, the claim is supported.
Caveats
- Only the OpenAI attribution is scored. The total and the Anthropic figure are hedged estimates.
- Brockman gave a full-year expectation, not a completed figure.
- The source is a news report of testimony, not the court transcript.
Evidence (2 items)
Supports the claim: The Standard (Reuters),
OpenAI expects to spend US$50 billion (HK$390) on computing power this year, co-founder and President Greg Brockman said during his testimony in the company's courtroom battle with Elon Musk on Tuesday.
Why it matters: OpenAI's president told the Musk trial that OpenAI expects about $50 billion in compute spending in 2026. This matches the attribution in the claim.
- Publisher
- The Standard (Reuters)
- Kind of source
- News report, unaudited
- Measures
- OpenAI, annual compute spending, USD billions, company reported, 2026-01-01 to 2026-12-31
- About events on
- Published
Context only: The Standard (Reuters),
The ChatGPT maker's computing costs have risen from about US$30 million in 2017 to tens of billions of dollars this year, he said.
Why it matters: Further testimony confirming that the figure is OpenAI's own annual compute cost for 2026.
- Publisher
- The Standard (Reuters)
- Kind of source
- News report, unaudited
- About events on
- Published
How we judged it
- Kind of claim
- Observation
- Deadline
- None given. We don’t add one.
Conditions
- appears to be (their words)
- Anthropic likely spending similar amounts (their words)
Where we had to interpret
- The total ('appears to be roughly $100 billion or so') and the Anthropic figure ('likely spending similar amounts') are openly hedged estimates. They are not scored.
- The one firm, sourced statement is that OpenAI's annual compute spend is around $50 billion, 'per their statements in the Musk trial'. That attribution is what gets tested.
- Plain reading: in the Musk v. OpenAI trial, an OpenAI representative said OpenAI's annual compute spend is about $50 billion. A full-year 2026 figure, whether projected or actual, fits 'annual compute spend'. No quarterly or run-rate measure is imposed.
- Target period: calendar 2026, the 'right now' year of the post and the trial.
Right if: A reliable record shows that OpenAI said in the Musk trial that its annual compute spend is about $50 billion, roughly $40 billion to $60 billion.
Wrong if: The trial record shows OpenAI gave a materially different annual compute figure, or made no such statement.
We wrote this test after the outcome was known.
We found 37 claims in this post. See them all.
Full record
Source and dates
Where's Your Ed At, The Subprime Data Center Crisis, paragraph 68.
- Said
- We read the source
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence up to
- Checked
We read this wording on 2026-10-28. The post may have been edited after 2026-07-22.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the posts we read.
: Where's Your Ed At, The Subprime Data Center Crisis
Right now, there appears to be roughly $100 billion or so in annual compute spend, with OpenAI representing around $50 billion (per their statements in the Musk trial), and Anthropic likely spending similar amounts.
- Where
- paragraph 68
- Published
- 2026-07-22
- We read it
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Versions
- Current: Supported. Evidence up to 2026-10-28.
What happened to this record
PublishedBy us
Published after both AI reviews and the final check passed.
Held backBy us
A reviewer said our test wasn’t fair to what was actually said.