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Crossed Wires: Strange bedfellows — the AI giants’ dizzying dance of alliances and animosities

Daily Maverick · · 1473 words · By Steven Boykey Sidley
Corporate Rivalries AI Industry Strategic Alliances AI Infrastructure Economics
open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-05-20-crossed-wires-strange-bedfell…

psychologyDetected Techniques

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Loaded Language 90% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
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Name Calling / Labeling 70% confidence
Attaching a negative label to a person or group to reject them without evidence.
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Exaggeration / Hyperbole 80% confidence
Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

16 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

schedule Pending 6
check_circle Corroborated 4
verified Verified 2
info Single Source 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
help Insufficient Evidence 1
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“Anthropic chief Dario Amodei took the stage at Anthropic’s “Code with Claude” developer conference on 6 May 2026 in San Francisco”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm Dario Amodei spoke at the 'Code with Claude' developer conference in San Francisco on May 6, 2026.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Anthropic is an American artificial intelligence (AI) company headquartered in San Francisco. It has developed a series of large language models (LLMs) named Claude and has a focus on AI safety. Anthr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Daniela Amodei (born 1987) is an American entrepreneur and the president of Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) company known for its Claude series of large language models. She co-founded Anth…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Amodei
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Dario Amodei (born 1983) is an American artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and entrepreneur. In 2021, he and his sister Daniela Amodei co-founded Anthropic, the company behind the large language …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dario_Amodei
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“his company had struck a compute deal with SpaceX (now merged with Musk’s AI lab xAI) to lease the entire capacity of the Colossus 1 giant data centre in Memphis, Tennessee”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web sources report that Anthropic leased the entire capacity of the Colossus 1 data center from SpaceX/xAI.
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web search NEUTRAL — Anthropic is leasing the entire Colossus 1 capacity from SpaceXAI: over 300 MW and more than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs.SpaceXAI’s Colossus 1 data center, which xAI says will provide Anthropic with additiona…
https://nordictimes.com/tech/anthropic-leases-musk-colossus-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Anthropic announced Wednesday it has signed to lease 100% of SpaceX's Colossus 1, the 220,000-GPU Memphis cluster Elon Musk's xAI built. The deal doubles Claude Code rate limits this month and ties An…
https://www.implicator.ai/anthropic-was-built-to-counter-mus…
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web search NEUTRAL — In April, xAI announced that Colossus data center capacity would be used by Cursor. The AI code editing company has also agreed to a $60 billion conditional takeover offer from SpaceX. If SpaceX doesn…
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/anthropic-to-use-…
verified
“Colossus 1 giant data centre in Memphis, Tennessee, famous for having been built by Musk in just 122 days”
VERIFIED
Both Wikipedia and official xAI sources confirm the Colossus supercomputer is in Memphis, Tennessee, and was built in 122 days.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Colossus is a supercomputer developed by xAI. Construction began in 2024 in Memphis, Tennessee; the system became operational in July 2024. It is currently the world's largest AI supercomputer. Coloss…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_(supercomputer)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — SpaceXAI is a division of American aerospace company SpaceX working in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), social media and technology. The division's flagship products are the generative AI cha…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceXAI
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a ye…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOP500
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“More than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs. Over 300 megawatts of capacity.”
CORROBORATED
The specific figures of over 220,000 Nvidia GPUs and 300 megawatts of capacity are reported by both Axios and The Nordic Times.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research organization headquartered in San Francisco, consisting of a for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC) partially controlled by a nonprofit…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a ye…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOP500
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The transistor count is the number of transistors in an electronic device (typically on a single substrate or silicon die). It is the most common measure of integrated circuit complexity (although the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_count
+ 4 more evidence sources
verified
“Musk and Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Confirmed by multiple cross-references and Wikipedia that Elon Musk and Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur who has been the chief executive officer (CEO) of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI since 2019. Altman attended Stanford…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board of directors ousted co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman. In an official post on the company's website, it was stated that "the board no longer has confidence…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Sam_Altman_from_Ope…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Musk v. Altman was a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in which Elon Musk accused OpenAI and its executives, including CEO Sam Altman, of violating th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_v._Altman
+ 5 more evidence sources
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“Amodei was once Altman’s research director at OpenAI”
VERIFIED
Web search and Wikipedia confirm Dario Amodei was a VP of Research (Research Director) at OpenAI before founding Anthropic.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur who has been the chief executive officer (CEO) of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI since 2019. Altman attended Stanford…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board of directors ousted co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman. In an official post on the company's website, it was stated that "the board no longer has confidence…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Sam_Altman_from_Ope…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Dario Amodei (born 1983) is an American artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and entrepreneur. In 2021, he and his sister Daniela Amodei co-founded Anthropic, the company behind the large language …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dario_Amodei
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“He left in 2021, along with his sister Daniela and several colleagues, to found Anthropic”
SINGLE SOURCE
While Wikipedia confirms he co-founded Anthropic in 2021 with his sister Daniela, the provided evidence for this specific claim (web search results) contains irrelevant information about health apps (MyDario), and the Wikipedia entries for Dario/Daniela confirm the founding but not the specific 'colleagues' detail in the provided snippets.
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web search NEUTRAL — Dec 10, 2025 · Dario began with a direct-to-consumer hypertension support to anchor DarioIQ™ in a high-impact condition area while refining the integrated conversational experience, before expanding a…
https://dariohealth.investorroom.com/2025-12-10-Dario-Launch…
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web search NEUTRAL — Dario’s Blood Pressure Monitoring System empowers you to successfully monitor your blood pressure from the comfort of your home or office. Bluetooth ® connectivity lets you store all your readings in …
https://shop.mydario.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — DarioHealth is a leader in personalized health management, empowering people to navigate their health journeys with data-driven solutions. Learn More!
https://www.dariohealth.com/
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“they conspicuously refused to join hands along with everyone else during an onstage moment of solidarity at the AI Impact Summit in India in February [2026]”
SINGLE SOURCE
The web search results returned irrelevant information about SAM.gov and Sam's Club, providing no evidence regarding an AI Impact Summit in India in 2026.
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web search NEUTRAL — GSA recently released a new Federal Assistance Listings API (Application Program Interface) to SAM.gov. Users can use the API to access and consume assistance listings data in bulk.
https://sam.gov/
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web search NEUTRAL — Shop Samsclub.com today for Every Day Low Prices. Join Sam's Club as a Plus Member and get free same-day or next-day delivery from your club & free shipping on eligible items totaling $50 or more.
https://www.samsclub.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — Sam's Club Credit Online Account Management Not sure which account you have? click here. Credit AccountType Lookup Account Number:
https://credit.syf.com/commonredirect/sams/commonlogin.html
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“The five largest hyperscalers (owners and renters of mega-data centres) – Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle – are collectively on track to spend somewhere between $660-billion and $690-billion on capital expenditure in 2026 alone”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources (Oracle report, Meta report, Nerd Level Tech) confirm the projected capital expenditure of $660-690 billion for the five hyperscalers in 2026.
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web search NEUTRAL — The five largest hyperscalers, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle, are collectively on track to spend between $660 billion and $690 billion on capital expenditure this year. That is a 36 pe…
https://www.humai.blog/meta-is-buying-millions-of-nvidia-chi…
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web search NEUTRAL — The commitment is staggering. The five largest US cloud and AI infrastructure providers-Microsoft, Alphabet, AmazonAMZN--, MetaMETA--, and Oracle-have collectively pledged to spend between $660 billio…
https://www.ainvest.com/news/oracle-553b-ai-infrastructure-b…
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web search NEUTRAL — Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle are collectively planning to spend approximately $690 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, with the vast majority directed at AI data centers, GPUs, a…
https://nerdleveltech.com/the-700-billion-ai-infrastructure-…
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“McKinsey projects $7-trillion in global data centre infrastructure spending by 2030”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results to support the McKinsey projection of $7 trillion by 2030.
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“In April 2026, SpaceX announced it had secured the option to acquire Cursor for $60-billion later in the year, or pay $10-billion for collaborative development”
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“OpenAI acquired AI-code editor Windsurf for $3-billion”
PENDING
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“Anthropic, meanwhile, has Claude Code, which generated over $500-million in run-rate revenue within months of its launch”
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“for the whole of fiscal 2025 its [Apple's] capital expenditure was a modest $12.7-billion”
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“Amazon’s planned $200-billion for 2026 alone”
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“more than 80% of AI chips are made [in Taiwan]”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.