SpaceX Pursues $40 Billion Financing Deal with Apollo to Acquire Nvidia AI Chips

SpaceX Targets Massive $40 Billion Financing for Nvidia Hardware

SpaceX is pursuing $40 billion in financing to acquire Nvidia chips in what would mark one of the largest AI hardware acquisition deals to date1

1

2

2

. Elon Musk's rocket and AI company plans to raise approximately $10 billion in bank loans combined with $30 billion in investment-grade debt for this blockbuster chip order3

3

. Apollo Global Management is expected to lead the SpaceX $40 billion financing effort and help distribute the debt across a broad investor base2

2

. PIMCO, a major bond manager, is among a small group of lenders in discussions to participate in funding the deal2

2

3

3

. The transaction is currently expected to close sometime in 2027, though discussions remain at an early stage with no guarantee the deal will materialize1

1

.

Exclusive Commitment to Vera Rubin AI Platform Architecture

The AI hardware acquisition underscores SpaceX's strategic commitment to Nvidia's technology ecosystem. Elon Musk declared during SpaceX's August earnings call that the company has decided to build exclusively on Nvidia hardware because "we think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture"2

2

. Assuming SpaceX acquires Vera Rubin NVL72 systems at approximately $8 million per unit, the $40 billion investment could fund roughly 5,000 NVL72 racks containing approximately 360,000 Nvidia AI accelerators1

1

. The scale of xAI's existing Nvidia deployments is already substantial, with Musk revealing last month that xAI's Colossus 2 cluster currently houses 110,000 Nvidia GB200 accelerators and 440,000 GB300 devices1

1

. Musk also stated that the Colossus data centers could more than double their number of Nvidia chips by December3

3

5

5

.

Investment-Grade Debt Opens Institutional Investor Access

SpaceX's BBB credit rating, the second-lowest investment-grade ranking, enables insurance and pension funds to purchase the company's debt2

2

. These institutional investors typically take limited positions in junk-rated notes, making the investment-grade debt structure critical for accessing broader capital pools. SpaceX secured its investment-grade rating shortly after its $86 billion initial public offering in June and sold $25 billion in high-grade bonds less than two weeks later2

2

. However, those bonds sold off in following days due to concerns over mounting debt and heavy capital expenditure. Bonds maturing in 2056 are currently trading at about 85 cents on the dollar, with yields approximately 2.27 percentage points above US Treasuries—similar to junk bond levels2

2

. Some investors approached previously about financing received only a brief two-page deal memo featuring pictures of outer space and an arrow indicating data centers would be built "somewhere in the universe"2

2

.

Apollo's Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Financing

Apollo Global Management has established itself as a major player in AI infrastructure financing. The firm already has considerable exposure to this market and previously participated in financing Elon Musk's AI buildout. In August, Apollo arranged a $7 billion financing deal with xAI that funded Nvidia hardware for the company's Colossus 2 data center near Memphis1

1

. Apollo has made lending to high-grade companies a pillar of its $800 billion credit business, leading multibillion-dollar financing transactions for companies such as Intel and Bayer2

2

. The firm also led a $35 billion chip financing deal in June for processors made by Nvidia rival Broadcom, marking the largest private credit transaction at that time2

2

. Apollo's life insurance and annuities affiliate Athene typically purchases large portions of these offerings2

2

.

Nvidia's Expanding Financing Ecosystem for AI Boom

The proposed SpaceX financing illustrates the enormous capital requirements driving the AI boom across the semiconductor industry. Morgan Stanley estimates that AI infrastructure will require $1.5 trillion in external financing by 2028, even as lenders and investors grow more cautious about funding the industry's expansion3

3

. In August, Nvidia announced partnerships with some of Wall Street's largest firms on a $500 billion funding platform, signing memorandums of understanding with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR1

1

2

2

. This consortium aims to create pools of third-party capital financing the acquisition of Nvidia chips and broader AI infrastructure buildout at lower borrowing costs for smaller clients, with Nvidia potentially backstopping up to 25 percent of chip value2

2

. The deal would strengthen ties between SpaceX and Nvidia while marking a significant win for the chipmaker as it contends with growing competition from rivals aiming to challenge its dominance in advanced semiconductors2

2

. SpaceX has also signed deals to rent out compute capabilities from Colossus to other major AI developers, chiefly Anthropic and Google4

4

, positioning the company as both a consumer and provider of AI accelerators within the expanding ecosystem.