Goldman and Apollo Shop SpaceX's $40 Billion AI Debt

Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global Management are hunting for buyers to take pieces of a roughly $40 billion financing tied to the artificial intelligence chips behind Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to a Bloomberg report carried by Reuters. Some investors are being asked to commit up to $500 million each before formal syndication begins.

The structure is the interesting part. SpaceX announced the deal in October and called it the largest committed financing for graphics chips on record. Rather than borrow to buy the hardware outright, the company signed a master finance lease, agreeing to repay about $40 billion in principal plus interest and fees over a little more than five years. Because the lease payments cover the cost, the debt sits off SpaceX's own balance sheet. In effect, it is renting its AI compute.

Counting a $7 billion prepayment from SpaceX, the arrangement funds around $47.3 billion of chips and related equipment, most of it due to arrive in the first half of 2027. Goldman led the loan side while Apollo took a principal role in the bonds, with the bond manager Pimco also taking part. Goldman declined to comment.

The appetite is being tested at a sensitive moment. SpaceX's AI ambitions are devouring cash, with quarterly capital spending climbing toward $20 billion from under $7 billion a year earlier, and the company expecting to spend $35 billion to $40 billion in the fourth quarter alone. Selling the risk down to pensions, insurers and private-credit funds spreads that weight across the financial system rather than parking it on any one lender.

It also rhymes with a trend that has started to worry investors. Nvidia has been quietly backstopping its own customers' purchases, and the circular flow of money between chipmakers, clouds and AI developers is one reason the Nasdaq slid into a correction last week. A $40 billion lease that keeps the hardware off the books is efficient. Whether it looks prudent depends on the chips earning their keep by 2027.