SpaceX Plans $40 Billion Debt to Buy Nvidia Chips
The Financial Times reports talks over $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in bonds, with Apollo leading and Pimco among early lenders.
In short
SpaceX is in talks to raise $40 billion in debt — roughly $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade bonds — to pay for Nvidia chips, according to a Financial Times report that neither company has confirmed.
At a glance
- Size: $40 billion — about $10 billion in bank loans plus about $30 billion in investment-grade bonds.
- Apollo is leading the deal; bond manager Pimco is among the small group of lenders.
- SpaceX raised $86 billion in its June IPO and borrowed $25 billion more via bonds under two weeks later.
- SpaceX bonds maturing in 2056 trade near 85 cents on the dollar, with a 2.27 percentage point spread over Treasuries.
- AI infrastructure bonds: $360 billion year to date, 5.8% of global issuance, up from 1.9% a year earlier.
SpaceX is in talks to borrow $40 billion to pay for Nvidia chips, the Financial Times reported: roughly $10 billion in bank loans and roughly $30 billion in investment-grade bonds, with asset manager Apollo leading the deal. Neither SpaceX nor Nvidia has confirmed it.
Why the timing stands out
SpaceX is not short of fresh capital. Its June IPO brought in $86 billion, and less than two weeks later the company borrowed another $25 billion from bond investors. A further $40 billion would land on top of that within months.
Who is lending
Apollo is leading the financing and placing the debt widely in the market, and bond manager Pimco is among the small group of lenders named in the report. Apollo is also one of the firms that signed on in August to Nvidia's $500 billion financing platform for AI infrastructure, alongside Blackrock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR.
That overlap is the part investors keep circling back to. The lenders underwriting the chip purchases are also partners in the chipmaker's own financing vehicle. Circular arrangements of exactly this shape are what the current skepticism is about.
The market has already repriced
SpaceX shares traded 2.5 percent lower on October 7 after news of the talks, having climbed about 15 percent over the previous five days. The bond market moved further. SpaceX notes maturing in 2056 change hands at around 85 cents on the dollar, according to MarketAxess. Investors there demand 2.27 percentage points more yield than on US Treasuries.
Debt is funding the AI build-out
The scale is no longer niche. Global investment-grade and high-yield bond issuance from hyperscalers, data centers and other AI infrastructure projects has reached at least $360 billion since the start of the year. That is 5.8 percent of all global bond issuance, up from 1.9 percent a year earlier.
What the report does not say
Several things are genuinely unknown rather than merely left out. The report does not name which Nvidia chips are involved, nor the timetable, the borrowing vehicle or the final pricing. Everything above rests on Financial Times reporting, and the companies involved have not commented.
FAQ
How much is SpaceX trying to raise for Nvidia chips?
$40 billion in total — about $10 billion in bank loans and about $30 billion in investment-grade bonds, according to the Financial Times.
Has SpaceX confirmed the $40 billion financing?
No. The figures come from Financial Times reporting, and neither SpaceX nor Nvidia has commented. The talks had not produced a closed deal at the time of the report.
Why are investors wary of debt-financed AI deals?
Because the same institutions often sit on both sides. Apollo leads this financing and also signed Nvidia's $500 billion AI infrastructure platform, which makes the money flow look circular.
