SpaceX Secures $40B GPU Financing Deal with Apollo to Power AI Expansion

SpaceX has locked in a binding commitment for approximately $40 billion in financing for AI chips and related data center equipment, marking what the company describes as the "largest committed GPU financing" in history. Disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday, this strategic move allows the aerospace giant to fund its rapidly expanding artificial intelligence ambitions without relying solely on traditional debt markets. Under the agreement, an entity managed by New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management will purchase the chips and server hardware, then lease the equipment back to SpaceX for a period of five to five-and-a-quarter years, commencing upon the delivery of each equipment tranche. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, with leases officially starting in the first half of 2027 as the GPUs and related infrastructure arrive. This financing structure provides SpaceX with a diversified funding source, addressing a significant portion of the capital required to execute its aggressive growth plans. Bret Johnsen, SpaceX’s CFO, stated that the company is witnessing "less than one-year payback periods" on its AI infrastructure investments as it scales compute capabilities to power the Grok chatbot and its cloud services. Apollo confirmed that the financing will facilitate the delivery of Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips for SpaceX’s terrestrial compute buildout. This massive financing follows a blockbuster third quarter for SpaceX’s AI business, which includes the Grok chatbot, the Cursor coding tool, and its cloud compute operations. The AI segment outperformed investor expectations, generating $7.6 billion of the company’s total $14.6 billion in revenue—surpassing the combined earnings of Starlink and rocket launch services. Capital expenditures surged to nearly $20 billion, a significant jump from $6.9 billion in the same period last year, as SpaceX races to expand its compute footprint. Johnsen noted on the October 20 earnings call that the company anticipates spending between $35 billion and $40 billion in the fourth quarter alone. The timing of this lease comes amid a tumultuous period in debt markets for AI infrastructure players, where investors have grown wary of runaway capital expenditures and limited profitability. While SpaceX has successfully tapped into Wall Street resources, CEO Elon Musk used the announcement to highlight the competitive advantage of SpaceX’s "investment-grade" status and steady cash flow from its established Starlink and launch businesses. Musk argued on X that debt markets have largely closed the door on companies lacking major revenue streams outside of AI data centers, predicting a period of "guppy-level death and consolidation" for the more than 200 neocloud companies built solely to rent out GPUs for AI workloads.