Goldman Sachs and Apollo have begun selling portions of SpaceX's $40 billion debt in exchange for Nvidia chips

Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global Management have begun talks with investors regarding the sale of stakes in the financing of chips for Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX, totaling approximately $40 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. SpaceX announced the fundraising in October; the funds will be used to purchase Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) needed for the development of artificial intelligence.

In some cases, the two companies are offering investors the opportunity to purchase tranches of up to $500 million before the official start of the syndication process (when several lenders join forces to finance a loan); the parties hope this will allow them to close the deal more quickly, sources told Bloomberg. Syndication is expected to begin shortly, the agency’s sources said, without specifying a specific timeline.

Representatives from Apollo and Goldman declined to comment, and SpaceX did not respond to a request from Bloomberg.

Under the terms of the $40 billion deal with SpaceX, a special-purpose vehicle managed by Atlas SP (an Apollo partner) will purchase Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and issue debt to be held by creditors, Bloomberg reported. This structure will allow SpaceX to protect its corporate credit ratings, the agency states. The deal is structured so that the debt does not appear on SpaceX’s balance sheet. According to the company itself, this is the largest deal in history to finance the purchase of GPUs.

The debt is divided into several tranches, including a senior secured loan of $8.3 billion, which is being syndicated to banks, and several bond tranches for asset managers, sources told Bloomberg. According to them, Goldman Sachs led the loan portion, Apollo was the key investor in the bonds, and Pimco is also participating in the deal. The debt package, along with $7 billion in prepaid rent, will be used to pay for equipment worth approximately $47.3 billion—primarily the latest Nvidia Rubin chips, which are scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2027, the agency reports.

SpaceX will lease the chips under a five-year agreement. However, it is not providing a residual value guarantee or other commitments that have become standard practice for tech companies securing this type of financing, according to Bloomberg. SpaceX also cannot invoke force majeure to suspend payments.

Discussions about selling part of the debt began just as the AI financing market was bracing for turmoil following the Democrats’ success in the midterm congressional elections, Bloomberg noted. Data centers also became a hot topic in the election campaign—especially in Texas. Against the backdrop of a sharp shift in the political landscape, the market reacted with a decline in SpaceX and Tesla stock prices.

But even before the election, investors began to ask themselves more frequently whether future revenues would be sufficient to justify the industry’s massive current spending on AI infrastructure. In particular, lenders have become more skeptical of some of SpaceX’s “neocloud” competitors, including Nebius and CoreWeave.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor