SpaceX has secured about $40 billion in financing for AI chips and related data center equipment. The company disclosed the deal in a regulatory filing on Monday, October 26.
SpaceX called it the “largest committed GPU financing.” The agreement is a binding commitment.
How the Apollo Lease Works
Under the deal, an entity managed by Apollo Global Management will buy the chips and server hardware. It will then lease the equipment to SpaceX.
Each lease will last about five to five-and-a-quarter years. The term starts when each batch of equipment is delivered, according to the filing.
Apollo said the financing will help deliver Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips. The chips will support SpaceX’s “terrestrial compute buildout.”
The arrangement gives SpaceX another way to fund its AI plans. The company does not have to rely only on traditional debt markets.
SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen said the lease diversifies the company’s funding sources. He said it covers a large part of the money needed for SpaceX’s growth plans.
Johnsen also said SpaceX is seeing “less than one-year payback periods” on its AI infrastructure spending. The company is scaling its computing power to run the Grok chatbot and its cloud services.
AI Business Drives Spending
The deal follows a strong third quarter for SpaceX’s AI segment. That segment includes Grok, the Cursor coding tool, and a cloud compute business.
The AI unit brought in $7.6 billion of SpaceX’s $14.6 billion in third-quarter revenue. That was more than Starlink and rocket launches combined.
Capital spending jumped to nearly $20 billion in the quarter. That compares with $6.9 billion a year earlier.
On the company’s October 20 earnings call, Johnsen said SpaceX expects to spend $35 billion to $40 billion in the fourth quarter alone.
The lease comes after a rough stretch in debt markets for AI infrastructure companies. Investors have grown wary of heavy spending and limited profits in the sector.
Elon Musk pointed to SpaceX’s investment-grade status and steady cash flow from Starlink and launches. On Sunday, he argued that debt markets have mostly closed to companies that rely only on AI data centers for revenue.
Musk said this means trouble for the more than 200 “neocloud” companies built to rent out GPUs. “That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation,” he wrote on X. “Some will make it through, but not many.”
SpaceX expects the Apollo deal to close by the end of the year, subject to closing conditions. The first leases are set to begin in the first half of 2027 as the chips and equipment arrive.
