SpaceX has disclosed a binding commitment for roughly $40 billion of financing for AI chips and related data-centre equipment. The detail is in a Form 8-K, a regulatory filing the company signed on 26 October 2026. The filing reports a commitment letter to enter a lease, not a completed lease. It also leaves a central number, the interest rate, open.

Map showing where Starbase is
Starbase, United States

What the filing says

The 8-K says that on 24 October 2026 SpaceX "entered into a binding commitment letter to enter into a master finance lease" with an entity managed by Apollo Global Management. The lessor would acquire "graphics processing unit pods and related equipment" and lease them to SpaceX for use at data centres SpaceX selects.

The filing sets out the structure:

  • Delivery: The equipment would arrive in tranches, each under its own lease schedule.
  • Term: Each schedule would run for approximately five to five and one-quarter years from its commencement date.
  • Rent: Rent would be payable quarterly in advance. It would generally combine one-twentieth of the financed cost of the tranche, an amount at a fixed rate per annum on the outstanding lease balance, and certain ongoing costs and expenses.
  • Rate: The filing says the fixed rate "will be determined at pricing which will occur prior to the Company's entry into the master finance lease".
  • Size: SpaceX expects aggregate principal payments under the schedules, over their terms, to total approximately $40 billion.
  • Timing: Entering the lease is subject to certain specified closing conditions and is expected to close prior to year end. The lease schedules are expected to commence during the first half of 2027, upon delivery of the GPUs.

The filing carries forward-looking-statement language. It lists the risk that the transaction may not close on the anticipated terms or timeline, or at all, and that deliveries, lease terms or principal payments may differ from current expectations. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen signed it.

In short, this is announced and committed. The filing's own wording is that the lease itself is yet to be entered, and the price is yet to be set.

What SpaceX and Apollo say

SpaceX described the deal as the "largest committed GPU financing" in a statement (per TechCrunch).

SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen said in a statement (per TechCrunch) that the lease "diversifies our funding sources" and that the company is seeing "less than one-year payback periods" on AI infrastructure. Those are the company's own claims about its own investments.

The lease covers GPU pods and related equipment (per the 8-K). Apollo said the financing will help deliver Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin chips (per TechCrunch).

A portrait photograph of Elon Musk
A portrait photograph of Elon Musk

Musk's reading, and the numbers around it

TechCrunch reported that Elon Musk, pointing to SpaceX's "investment-grade" status and steady cash flow from Starlink and rocket launches, argued on Sunday that debt markets have largely closed the door on companies without major revenue outside AI data centres. He wrote on X, as TechCrunch quotes him: "That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation." He added: "Some will make it through, but not many." That is Musk's opinion. It is not a finding.

TechCrunch also supplied the financial backdrop, all from its own reporting:

  • SpaceX's AI segment (Grok, Cursor, cloud compute) brought in $7.6 billion of its $14.6 billion in Q3 revenue, more than Starlink and rocket launches combined (per TechCrunch).
  • Capital expenditures surged to nearly $20 billion in Q3, up from $6.9 billion a year earlier (per TechCrunch).
  • CFO Bret Johnsen said on the 20 October earnings call that SpaceX expects to spend $35-40 billion in Q4 alone (per TechCrunch).

CNBC reported on 7 October that the company had reported nearly $40 billion in debt in its second-quarter financials and that its existing debt traded near junk-bond levels, as credit markets had overall been more skittish. It added that SpaceX had raised $25 billion in bonds two weeks after its mid-June IPO, and that AI-related bonds had since sold off while credit spreads widened. The same CNBC report said the planned debt deal would rely primarily on the investment-grade debt market, which SpaceX had tapped four months earlier.

From "in talks" to a lease

The deal first surfaced as a debt story. On 6 October, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was in talks with banks and investors to raise $40 billion to buy chips from Nvidia, citing people familiar with the matter. Those people said the discussions were at an early stage and could end without a deal. On 7 October, CNBC cited a person familiar with the talks saying Apollo and several banks were involved and the deal would likely use GPUs as collateral. Tom's Hardware, relaying the Financial Times, reported a possible split of $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt, with closing sometime in 2027.

The filing describes something different in form: an equipment lease from an Apollo-managed entity, with the lease schedules expected to start in the first half of 2027. Bloomberg's summary of its 26 October report called it a roughly $40 billion equipment-finance lease. It noted that SpaceX said in the filing that the fixed rate will be determined at pricing, which hadn't yet occurred.

My reading is that the headline number survived the move from talks to commitment, while the shape of the deal changed. A lease is a different instrument from the borrowing described earlier, and the filing's wording is the one that counts.

What the $40bn buys

The filing gives no chip count. Tom's Hardware estimated on 8 October that the $40 billion could fund roughly 360,000 Vera Rubin GPUs across 5,000 NVL72 racks, based on an assumed ~$8 million per unit. The estimate was written about the earlier debt-package reports, and it is Tom's Hardware's own arithmetic, not a figure from SpaceX or Apollo. Treat it as a back-of-envelope guess at scale.

Sources

Arroyo, C. (2026) 'SpaceX Agrees to $40 Billion Chip-Financing Deal With Apollo', Bloomberg, 26 October 2026, available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-26/spacex-agrees-to-40-billion-chip-financing-deal-with-apollo (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

Benitez, L. and Arroyo, C. (2026) 'SpaceX in Talks to Borrow $40 Billion to Buy Nvidia Chips', Bloomberg, 6 October 2026, available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-06/spacex-seeking-to-raise-40-billion-to-buy-nvidia-chips-ft-says (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

CNBC (2026) 'Apollo, banks in talks to finance SpaceX's $40 billion Nvidia GPU purchase', CNBC, 7 October 2026, available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/07/spacex-nvidia-chips-apollo-financing.html (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

Mehta, A. (2026) 'SpaceX locks in $40B GPU financing deal with Apollo', TechCrunch, 26 October 2026, available at: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/26/spacex-locks-in-40b-gpu-financing-deal-with-apollo/ (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

Shilov, A. (2026) 'SpaceX reportedly seeking $40 billion debt package for Nvidia AI hardware — massive raise could fund roughly 360,000 Vera Rubin GPUs across 5,000 NVL72 racks', Tom's Hardware, 8 October 2026, available at: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/spacex-reportedly-seeking-usd40-billion-debt-package-for-nvidia-ai-hardware-massive-raise-could-fund-roughly-360-000-vera-rubin-gpus-across-5-000-nvl72-racks (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (2026) 'Form 8-K, Item 8.01 — Other Events', as reproduced by Stock Titan ('Space Exploration Technologies expects ~$40B lease principal'), 26 October 2026, available at: https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/SPCX/8-k-space-exploration-technologies-corp-reports-material-event-535a6020be0a.html (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

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