Musk Says SpaceX Closed $40 Billion Debt Financing for AI Chips
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Elon Musk said on Sunday that SpaceX had closed $40 billion in debt financing to purchase graphics processing units used to power artificial-intelligence systems, and that the equipment was expected to arrive in the first and second quarters of 2027.
Writing on X, Musk said the financing consisted primarily of callable debt for the chips, and that SpaceX was investment grade, generating revenue from its Starlink satellite-internet and rocket-launch businesses, CNBC reported.
Bloomberg, which first reported the fundraising, said SpaceX had been in talks with banks and investors to raise the money to buy Nvidia chips, using a special-purpose vehicle to keep the debt off the company’s balance sheet and preserve its investment-grade credit ratings. Goldman Sachs was leading discussions with investors including Apollo Global Management, Bloomberg said. People familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg News that pricing terms remained under negotiation.
The deal underscores the capital demands of the AI boom, in which technology companies are committing tens of billions of dollars to advanced chips and data centres. SpaceX has expanded aggressively into artificial intelligence this year, referring to the business as “Super Intelligence.” The segment has become the company’s largest unit, with third-quarter revenue rising ninefold to $7.56 billion from $813 million a year earlier, according to its latest earnings release.
Musk said debt markets had largely shut off financing for companies without substantial revenue outside AI data centres. He predicted that more than 200 so-called neocloud companies, which build cloud computing infrastructure for machine-learning workloads, would face widespread failures and consolidation, with only a small number surviving.
The financing adds SpaceX to a short list of borrowers able to raise sums of this size for chip purchases, a market in which lenders have pressed for structures that ring-fence the hardware from operating balance sheets. Musk gave no details of the participating lenders.
The chips’ scheduled arrival in 2027 leaves the company’s AI build-out dependent on a supply chain Nvidia has promised to expand, and on credit conditions that Musk indicated are already tightening for smaller rivals.