SpaceX committed to a $40 billion lease for Nvidia chips from an Apollo-managed entity
Elon Musk called it closed debt, but SpaceX's own release says the lease is a binding commitment that has not yet closed.
In brief
SpaceX lines up $40 billion for AI chips
SpaceX committed to a finance lease for Nvidia Vera Rubin chips with an Apollo-managed entity. Musk called it closed debt. The filing says it has not closed yet.
SpaceX has made a binding commitment to enter a master finance lease worth about $40 billion for GPUs and related equipment. The other side is an entity managed by Apollo Global Management. SpaceX and Apollo both announced it on October 26, 2026.
A GPU is the kind of chip that powers AI systems. A finance lease works like a long rental: a lender buys the equipment and SpaceX uses it for years while paying for it.
The numbers
- About $40 billion in total.
- Nvidia Vera Rubin chips, for SpaceX's terrestrial compute buildout.
- Lease schedules are expected to begin in the first half of 2027, when the equipment is delivered.
- Closing is expected before the end of 2026.
Unite.ai reports that each tranche would run about five to five and a quarter years. It also reports that the commitment was signed on October 24 and disclosed in an 8-K filing. PitchBook says this is bigger than a $36 billion structured notes deal for GPUs tied to Anthropic.
Who is paying
Apollo and Goldman Sachs led the financing parties, and Goldman was sole structuring agent. Funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, plus accounts advised by KKR, made anchor commitments.
Closed or not?
The sources disagree on one point. Elon Musk said on X that SpaceX had closed $40 billion in debt financing. CNBC reports he also called it mostly callable debt.
The company's own release says entry into the lease is still subject to closing conditions. Unite.ai says the 8-K warns the deal may not close on the expected terms or timeline, or at all. Debt and a finance lease are different legal structures.
Why it matters
SpaceX says it wants to deploy the largest compute infrastructure in the world, to power Grok for businesses and consumers. The company says it sees payback periods of under one year on this infrastructure. CNBC reports that its AI unit, which it calls SI, had third-quarter revenue of $7.56 billion, up from $813 million a year earlier.
Musk also predicted that more than 200 smaller AI cloud companies could fail or merge as debt financing tightens. That is his forecast, not a finding.
The announcement did not disclose exact pricing, the lessor's legal name or where the data centers will be. The deal has not closed yet.