SpaceX Has Closed a $40 Billion Debt Deal to Fund AI Chips, Musk Says
The Deal Is Done, Musk Says
SpaceX has closed a $40 billion debt deal to pay for the chips it needs to fuel its artificial intelligence ambitions, Elon Musk said on Sunday.
Musk announced the closing on X, weeks after the Financial Times first reported that SpaceX was raising about $40 billion to buy Nvidia AI chips.
"We're investment grade and have Starlink & launch revenue," Musk wrote, explaining why lenders took the deal.
In a follow-up post, Musk said the borrowing is "primarily callable debt for GPU purchases that will arrive in Q1 and Q2," referring to the first half of 2027, and that it is "not a major factor this quarter." Callable debt lets the borrower repay early.
How the Financing Was Built
Per the original FT reporting, the package was expected to include about $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt.
Apollo Global Management was expected to lead the transaction and place the debt with a broad range of investors, with bond fund Pimco among a small group of lenders in talks, the FT reported.
SpaceX did not disclose final pricing, lenders or maturities, and has issued no separate announcement. Semafor had reported the chip-backed piece was likely to price near 7.75 percent, though figures could change before finalizing.
The scale is historic for a chip purchase. SpaceX already carried roughly $39 billion in long-term debt as of mid-2026, much of it from a $25 billion investment-grade bond offering in June.
A Compute Buildout With Rocket Money Behind It
Musk took SpaceX public in June in a record $86 billion IPO. The company trades as SPCX.
SpaceX acquired Musk's xAI in February, and its Colossus 2 data center could more than double the number of Nvidia chips it uses by December, Musk has said. The company plans to use Nvidia hardware exclusively to build its data centers.
The financing underscores the capital demands of the AI race. Morgan Stanley estimates AI infrastructure will require $1.5 trillion in external financing by 2028, even as lenders grow more cautious about funding the expansion.
SpaceX's edge, per Musk, is revenue that has nothing to do with AI: Starlink subscriptions and launch contracts. Quarterly revenue rose 161 percent year over year to $14.58 billion in the quarter ended September 30, per company figures cited in coverage.
What This Means for Markets
The direct beneficiaries start with NVDA, whose chips the $40 billion buys. Nvidia rose 0.5 percent when the raise was first reported, while SpaceX slipped about 1 percent.
APO is the other listed name at the center of the deal, leading a financing that shows how much of the AI buildout now runs through private credit and asset managers rather than banks alone.
For SPCX holders, the question is timing: whether AI revenue arrives fast enough to cover interest and depreciation on tens of billions of new hardware. The callable structure gives SpaceX room to refinance if it does.
Bottom Line
SpaceX just borrowed $40 billion against the strength of Starlink and launch revenue to buy GPUs, and closed it in weeks, at the exact moment Musk says the debt window is slamming shut for everyone else.
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