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SpaceX is in talks to borrow about $40 billion, led by Apollo, to buy Nvidia chips for its AI data centers. Musk says SpaceX will use only Nvidia hardware. Apollo, the lender organizing the money, would earn fees on a deal similar in size to the $35B chip loan it led in June for Anthropic's computing.
Source: Bloomberg ↗
SpaceX is negotiating about $40 billion of financing to buy chips for its AI data centers. Musk has said it will use Nvidia (NVDA) hardware exclusively. Musk said last month that the number of Nvidia chips at the Colossus 2 data center could more than double by December. The deal is expected to close in 2027. SpaceX spent $15.8B on computing infrastructure in the second quarter alone. How much of the $40 billion reaches Nvidia, rather than servers, networking and buildings, is not yet known. Apollo Global Management (APO) is to lead the financing and would place the debt with a broad group of investors. Pimco is among a small group of lenders in talks. The package is reportedly about $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt. Apollo earns fees for arranging debt and interest on whatever it keeps, and its own share is not yet known. Nvidia holds a stake in SpaceX worth about $21B, and Apollo is one of six firms in Nvidia's AI-infrastructure financing partnerships.
The talks could fail, shrink, or be repriced. Apollo could also place most of the debt with other investors and keep little itself. Reports through 2027 on whether the financing closes, at what size, and how much of it goes to Nvidia chips would show whether the link holds. If a large share goes to servers, networking or buildings, the Nvidia link is weaker than it looks.
A bigger deal also means bigger risk for lenders. $40B is more than SpaceX's annual revenue: it reported $7.8B in Q2 and $12.5B in the first half of 2026. With the 10-year Treasury yield at 5.31% on October 5, this debt will be costly to carry. SpaceX is rated BBB, and its 2056 bonds trade at about 85 cents on the dollar, about 2.27 points over Treasuries. Apollo's own holding is likely small next to the deal because the debt is being placed with many investors, so the gain to Apollo may be modest. For Nvidia, the money may go to chips SpaceX would have bought anyway, adding little new demand.
Earlier in 2026, Apollo-led funds provided about $3.5B and $3.4B for two deals through Valor Compute Infrastructure, which buys Nvidia GPUs and leases them to xAI. The new $40B request is nearly six times their combined size. It is not new territory for Apollo, though: in June it led, with Blackstone, a $35B loan secured by Broadcom chips for Anthropic's computing, at the time the largest private-credit deal ever.
SpaceX borrows up to $40 billion to fund future Nvidia purchases, and Musk says it will use only Nvidia hardware. SpaceX had already pointed to about $65B of 2026 capital spending, so the loan mostly funds planned buying. Much of that buying SpaceX may have done anyway. Any added demand would come mostly after the deal is expected to close in 2027.
Apollo leads the financing, about $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt. It earns arranging fees and interest on the part it keeps.
Apollo's own share is not yet known, because the debt is being placed with many investors. It is also unknown whether the loans are secured by the chips. Apollo's gain therefore depends mostly on fees, and on how much it holds.
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