SpaceX signs a $40B Apollo lease for Nvidia Vera Rubin chips — the largest GPU financing yet

• Who: SpaceX and an entity managed by Apollo Global Management; Goldman Sachs is the sole structuring agent, with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and KKR making anchor commitments.
• What: A binding commitment for an approximately $40 billion master finance lease under which the Apollo-managed entity buys Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs and related equipment and leases them to SpaceX.
• When: The binding commitment letter was entered on October 24, 2026 and disclosed on October 26, 2026, in a Form 8-K filing and announcement; closing is expected before the end of 2026, subject to closing conditions.
• Terms: Aggregate principal payments of approximately $40 billion, excluding financing charges and expenses, paid quarterly in advance at about one-twentieth of each tranche's financed cost plus a fixed interest rate that has not yet been determined.
• Duration: Each delivered tranche gets its own lease of about 5 to 5.25 years, starting in the first half of 2027 as the hardware arrives.
• Use: The Vera Rubin chips are for SpaceX's terrestrial compute buildout, powering Grok and its xAI subsidiary; SpaceX describes the deal as the largest committed GPU financing to date.

SpaceX has lined up roughly $40 billion to buy the AI chips it needs without buying them itself. Disclosed on Monday, October 26, 2026, the deal is a binding commitment for a master finance lease: an entity managed by Apollo Global Management will purchase Nvidia GPUs and related server equipment, then lease that hardware to SpaceX. SpaceX describes it as the largest committed GPU financing to date, and the chips at the centre of it are Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin processors.

The structure matters more than the headline number. The Apollo-managed lessor buys the GPU pods and related equipment in tranches and leases each batch to SpaceX for use at data centres SpaceX selects. Aggregate principal payments come to approximately $40 billion, excluding financing charges and expenses. Each tranche's lease runs about 5 to 5.25 years, with rent paid quarterly in advance at about one-twentieth of the tranche's financed cost, plus a fixed interest rate on the outstanding balance. Closing is expected before the end of 2026, subject to closing conditions, and the leases are expected to start in the first half of 2027 as the hardware arrives.

Not a bond sale

The filing clarifies what chief executive Elon Musk announced first. On Sunday, Musk said on X that SpaceX had "closed" $40 billion in debt financing for graphics processing units, aimed mainly at chips arriving in the first and second quarters. The October 26 filing shows the money is not standard corporate debt: it is a lease, with SpaceX repaying principal through scheduled rent rather than issuing bonds. The financing group is led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs, with Goldman Sachs as sole structuring agent; funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, along with capital accounts advised by KKR, made anchor commitments, according to the announcement.

Why lease instead of borrow

Leasing lets SpaceX spread a $40 billion hardware bill over five-plus years instead of funding it upfront, while keeping the equipment off its own purchase ledger until it arrives. In a statement on Monday, SpaceX said the lease "diversifies our funding sources and addresses a notable portion of the funding required to deliver on our growth plans," adding that it is seeing payback periods of less than a year on its AI investments. The GPUs will power Grok, the product of its xAI subsidiary, and support what Apollo called SpaceX's terrestrial compute buildout. Chief financial officer Bret Johnsen had already told investors SpaceX expects fourth-quarter capital expenditure of $35 billion to $40 billion, so the lease covers only part of a much larger spending plan. For scale, PitchBook notes the deal exceeds a $36 billion structured-notes deal finalized this summer to purchase and lease GPUs to Anthropic.

What is still unknown

The biggest unknown is the price of the money itself. The fixed interest rate will be determined at pricing, which has not yet happened, so the total financing cost on top of the $40 billion of principal cannot yet be calculated. Closing is also still subject to conditions, and because hardware arrives in batches, the leases will start on a staggered schedule through the first half of 2027 rather than all at once. The deal lands after a turbulent week for AI companies in debt markets, with investors demanding larger premiums to finance the buildout — which is exactly why the structure, not just the size, will be watched. If the rate prices high, the lease that looks like cheap capacity today becomes an expensive five-year commitment; if it prices tight, SpaceX will have locked in the largest GPU financing on record at a moment when rivals are struggling to fund theirs.

Sources: Reuters, PitchBook, Unite.AI, Silicon Report.