SpaceX Lines Up a $40 Billion GPU Lease From Apollo
SpaceX disclosed a binding commitment for about $40 billion in AI chips and data-center hardware through an Apollo-managed lease, not standard debt. The hardware, including Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin chips, is set to arrive in batches starting in early 2027.
SpaceX has lined up roughly $40 billion in financing for AI chips and data-center hardware, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday. The money will not arrive as standard corporate debt. An entity managed by Apollo Global Management will buy the chips and server hardware, then lease it back to SpaceX.
The filing clears up an announcement from chief executive Elon Musk on Saturday. Early coverage described the deal as debt financing. Monday's filing says it is a master finance lease.
How the lease works
Under the arrangement, the Apollo-managed entity buys the equipment and leases it to SpaceX in batches. Each batch carries a lease term of about five to five-and-a-quarter years, starting when that batch ships. SpaceX will pay about $40 billion in principal across the schedules, in quarterly installments, plus a fixed interest rate that has not yet been set.
The master lease is expected to close before the end of 2026, subject to closing conditions. It has not closed yet. Hardware deliveries are set to begin in the first half of 2027.
Apollo said the deal will fund delivery of Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin chips for what it called SpaceX's terrestrial compute buildout. Apollo and Goldman Sachs led the financing. Funds managed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, along with capital accounts advised by KKR, made anchor commitments, according to the company's release.
Why SpaceX needs the chips
SpaceX's AI unit, which runs the Grok chatbot, the Cursor coding tool and its cloud compute business, generated $7.6 billion of the company's $14.6 billion in third-quarter revenue. That is more than its launch and Starlink businesses combined, according to the company's own figures.
Capital spending rose to nearly $20 billion in the third quarter, up from $6.9 billion a year earlier. On the company's October 20 earnings call, chief financial officer Bret Johnsen said SpaceX plans to spend another $35 billion to $40 billion in the fourth quarter alone. Johnsen said the lease diversifies the company's funding sources and pointed to payback periods of under a year on its AI infrastructure spending.
A tighter credit market
The deal lands as investors grow more cautious about AI infrastructure spending elsewhere in the sector. Musk argued that credit markets have largely shut out companies with no major revenue outside AI data centers, and predicted consolidation among the more than 200 firms that exist mainly to rent out graphics processors.
SpaceX's case, as Musk framed it, is that it is not one of those firms. It holds an investment-grade Baa1 rating from Moody's, assigned in June, and it brings in steady revenue from Starlink and launches alongside its AI business. Whether the lease proves cheaper than borrowing in the long run will depend on terms still to be set, including that fixed interest rate.
For now, the filing gives SpaceX a committed route to the hardware it says it needs for 2027, without issuing conventional bonds. The test comes next year, when the first batches are due to arrive and the leases start to run.
