SpaceX Discloses $40 Billion Off-Balance-Sheet Debt Deal With Apollo to Finance AI Chips

Elon Musk said SpaceX has closed a $40 billion debt deal to pay for the Nvidia graphics processing units the company needs to power its artificial intelligence push, according to Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance. In a regulatory filing, SpaceX said it signed a binding commitment with an Apollo-managed entity for roughly $40 billion in GPU financing, CNBC reported.

How the Financing Is Structured

Bankers led by Goldman Sachs Group had been discussing the structure with investors led by Apollo Global Management, with Apollo-backed Atlas SP slated to manage the entity, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, had also considered investing, according to those people. The debt was expected to be issued in the form of private placements known as 144a offerings, Bloomberg reported, citing the same sources.

Musk said in a follow-up post that the financing primarily consisted of callable debt tied to GPUs expected to arrive in the first and second quarters of 2027, per CNBC's account of his statements. Discussions over final pricing for the off-balance-sheet structure were caught in the middle of recent turmoil in the neocloud sector, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Why SpaceX Says It Can Carry the Debt

SpaceX finalized the raise thanks to its investment-grade ratings and revenue from its Starlink satellite business and rocket launches, Musk wrote in a post on X describing the off-balance-sheet deal, according to Bloomberg. CNBC separately reported that in the same post Musk said the company was investment grade and generated revenue from both its Starlink satellite internet and rocket launch businesses.

On SpaceX's earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said the company was in discussions with lenders over further borrowing. "We have a lot of conviction that we are going to be able to do this in a very measured fashion and continue to keep ourselves in that IG status along the way," Johnsen said, according to Bloomberg, pointing to the firm's investment-grade rating.

It was not immediately clear what Musk meant by the deal being "closed" or whether investors had agreed on pricing for the debt, Bloomberg noted in its reporting, leaving open questions about how far the arrangement has actually progressed toward finalized terms.

Musk's Warning on Neoclouds

Musk used the disclosure to draw a contrast with so-called neocloud companies, AI compute providers that in some cases carry heavy debt loads. "As of the past few weeks, debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money for any company that doesn't have substantial revenue independent of AI data centers," Musk said in his post, as quoted by Bloomberg. He predicted the "200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation. Some will make it through, but not many," and CNBC reported separately that he forecast widespread failures and consolidation among more than 200 neocloud companies, with only a small number surviving.

Shares of neocloud firms including CoreWeave, Nebius and Iren fell in early trading the day of Musk's remarks before rebounding later in the session, CNBC reported, amid existing investor concerns about debt-fueled AI data center expansion and whether the buildout will generate returns. Those declines followed a broader monthlong slide: CNBC reported that CoreWeave and Nebius shares are down more than 30% over the past month while Iren has fallen 40%, a selloff that began after the spread on CoreWeave's five-year credit default swaps hit levels generally viewed as signs of distress. Comparing those two reported figures, Iren's decline is 10 percentage points deeper (30 - 40 = -10), or about 25% larger in relative terms ((30 - 40) / 40 x 100). That is arithmetic on the reported numbers only — CNBC describes the CoreWeave and Nebius move as "more than 30%," so the true gap may be narrower — and it is not a measure of comparative credit or business risk.

SpaceX's AI Business and Analyst Reaction

The financing comes as SpaceX's AI unit, referred to as "Super Intelligence," has become the company's largest business segment, CNBC reported. Third-quarter revenue for the unit surged ninefold to $7.56 billion from $813 million a year earlier, according to SpaceX's latest earnings release as cited by CNBC.

CNBC reported that analysts, including at Bernstein and Deutsche Bank, said SpaceX's AI infrastructure plans are not fully priced into the stock and raised their price targets. Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu said SpaceX is aiming to bring roughly 10 gigawatts of incremental computing capacity online by the end of next year, with compute potentially priced at roughly $35 billion per gigawatt versus an industry standard of $50 billion per gigawatt, according to CNBC's reporting of Yu's analysis.

Bottom Line

SpaceX has disclosed a $40 billion off-balance-sheet financing arrangement tied to Apollo-managed entities to fund Nvidia GPU purchases, leaning on its investment-grade rating and diversified revenue from Starlink and launches to distinguish itself from debt-heavy neocloud peers. Key details, including whether investors have actually agreed on final pricing and what Musk meant by calling the deal "closed," remain unconfirmed according to Bloomberg's reporting, even as SpaceX's AI segment revenue growth and expanding compute ambitions have drawn bullish commentary from some Wall Street analysts.