Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global Management have started asking Wall Street investors to take slices of as much as $500M each of the roughly $40B artificial intelligence chip financing at SpaceX, ahead of formal syndication.
The two firms are approaching potential buyers for the multi-tranche package, which SpaceX has called the largest graphics processing unit financing of its kind on record. Syndication is slated to start soon.
The structure is the point. A special purpose vehicle managed by Apollo-backed Atlas SP buys the Nvidia chips and issues the debt, so the borrowing never lands on SpaceX's balance sheet. SpaceX leases the hardware for a little more than five years and pays rent.
The package includes an $8.3B senior secured loan that Goldman leads and multiple bond tranches sold to asset managers. Apollo was the principal buyer of the bonds, with Pacific Investment Management Co. also participating. The debt, plus a $7B lease prepayment, funds about $47.3B of GPU equipment, Nvidia's latest Rubin chips, due in the first half of 2027.
Inside the Largest GPU Financing on Record
Components of the SpaceX chip financing, $B, as of Nov. 4, 2026
Bar chart. Amount ($B). Senior Secured Loan: Financing Amount ($B) $8.3. Lease Prepayment: Financing Amount ($B) $7. Total Debt Package: Financing Amount ($B) $40. Total GPU Equipment Funded: Financing Amount ($B) $47.3.
Source: Bloomberg, Briefs.co, Investor's Business Daily
The lease terms do the heavy lifting
Deal documents leave SpaceX little room to stop paying. The financing presentation is blunt: SpaceX's obligation to pay rent is absolute, and the rent falls due whatever happens to the equipment, including casualty or force majeure. Investors get what the documents call a clean look-through to SpaceX credit.
SpaceX offers no residual value guarantee or similar credit backstop. Outside buyers therefore carry the risk that the chips are worth less than the debt when the leases run out. SpaceX carries the rent, not the resale value.
Total principal payments under the leases come to about $40B, roughly equal to the company's existing debt. Keeping it off balance sheet protects SpaceX's corporate credit ratings while the obligation still exists.
Selling into a soft AI credit market
Investors agreed to the package in October before it priced, leaving lenders exposed to market swings. Since then, questions about whether AI revenue can justify the spending have cooled lenders on neocloud rivals, including CoreWeave, whose 2031 bonds fell to 79.5 cents on the dollar on Nov. 4.
Big Tech's AI payback problem has a history of its own.
Politics added pressure. Democrats swept into Congress in the midterm elections, and data center development became a ballot fight. Voters faced 41 ballot measures on restricting data centers across 10 states, and all but one went against the projects.
SpaceX originally sought $10B in bank loans and $30B in investment-grade debt. AI data center financing has its own backstory. SpaceX expects the arrangement to close by year end, with the lease still subject to closing conditions.
The terms to read in the paper are the rent covenant, the five-year lease length, and the $47.3B of chips that haven't shipped yet.
