SpaceX is seeking to raise $40 billion in financing led by Apollo Global Management to buy Nvidia chips, according to people familiar with the matter. The package would combine bank loans and investment-grade bonds, with Pimco among the lenders in talks and the deal expected to close in 2027.
Elon Musk's SpaceX wants to raise $40 billion to fund its Nvidia chip order, and Apollo Global Management is lined up to lead the financing. The company is seeking about $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
Apollo and Pimco in talks to fund the deal
Apollo is expected to lead the transaction and help place the debt with a broad base of investors. Bond manager Pimco was among a small group of lenders in talks to fund the package, and the transaction is expected to close in 2027. SpaceX's BBB credit rating, the second-lowest investment-grade tier, opens the debt to insurance and pension funds that take only limited positions in junk-rated notes.
SpaceX secured that investment-grade rating shortly after its $86 billion initial public offering in June, then sold $25 billion in high-grade bonds less than two weeks later. However, those bonds sold off in the following days on concerns over the company's mounting debt and heavy capital spending. Its bonds maturing in 2056 now trade around 85 cents on the dollar, yielding about 2.27 percentage points above US Treasuries, a level similar to junk bonds, according to MarketAxess data.
Musk ties SpaceX's AI bet exclusively to Nvidia
Musk has committed SpaceX's computing push exclusively to Nvidia hardware. During SpaceX's earnings call in August, referring to Nvidia's latest AI chip platform, he said SpaceX builds exclusively on Nvidia because "we think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture."
The commitment follows a pattern. Apollo has already backed Nvidia GPU clusters leased to xAI, the AI venture now folded into SpaceX, including a $3.5 billion financing in early 2026 and a $3.4 billion deal shortly after, both arranged through Valor Equity Partners. Nvidia itself holds a stake in SpaceX worth about $21 billion as of June 2026, made up of 122.8 million shares.
Nvidia shares closed at $239.24, up 0.14% on Tuesday.
Part of a wider Wall Street push into chip financing
Apollo's $800 billion credit business has already led multibillion-dollar financings for companies including Intel and Bayer, and it led a $35 billion deal in June to finance chips made by Nvidia rival Broadcom, the largest private credit transaction at the time. In August, Nvidia announced it was working with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR on a $500 billion funding platform aimed at financing AI infrastructure purchases at lower borrowing costs, with Nvidia potentially backstopping up to 25% of the chip value.
SpaceX's own numbers show why the financing matters. Its AI-related non-cancelable commitments stood at $28 billion as of June 2026, with much of that due in 2027. The company also posted $15.8 billion in second-quarter capital spending on compute infrastructure.
Sources: Financial Times, Investing.com, Crypto Briefing
Trading involves risk.