Goldman Sachs, Apollo Seek Investors for $40 Billion SpaceX AI Chip Financing Deal

Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global Management are in talks with investors to sell portions of a roughly $40 billion financing arrangement for artificial intelligence chips and server equipment being leased to SpaceX, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

The two financial firms have begun approaching potential buyers ahead of a formal syndication process for the multi-tranche transaction. Some investors have been asked to consider purchasing stakes of up to $500 million, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter.

The financing is structured to keep the associated debt off SpaceX's balance sheet, making it the largest arrangement of its kind for graphics processing units (GPUs) on record, Bloomberg reported. The structure allows SpaceX to secure substantial computing capacity without directly recording the financing as conventional corporate borrowing.

SpaceX disclosed in October that an affiliate of Apollo Global Management would purchase AI chips and server hardware and lease the equipment to the company. The arrangement involves approximately $40 billion in principal payments, with interest and other expenses adding to the overall cost.

The transaction comes as SpaceX expands its artificial intelligence operations and seeks additional computing infrastructure to support its Grok models and cloud customers. Securing access to large volumes of advanced chips has become a major financing challenge for companies competing to build and operate AI services, given the high upfront cost of servers and associated infrastructure.

Under the arrangement, the chips and server equipment would be owned by a separate financing vehicle responsible for issuing the debt. Apollo's affiliate would acquire the hardware and lease it to SpaceX, separating ownership of the equipment and the associated borrowing from the company's main balance sheet.

The structure is intended to protect SpaceX's corporate credit ratings while providing investors with exposure to payments supported by the company's contractual lease obligations.

The leases will run for a little over five years from delivery of the equipment, which is expected in the first half of 2027. Each batch of equipment would carry a lease term of approximately five to five-and-a-quarter years.

SpaceX expects to pay about $40 billion in principal over the life of the arrangement, in addition to interest and other expenses. The financing has been described as the largest committed GPU financing deal, with several major investment firms also having committed funding.

The effort to syndicate portions of the transaction would distribute exposure among a wider group of investors rather than leave the financing concentrated among the original participants. The reported requests for investments of up to $500 million suggest that the firms are seeking substantial institutional commitments.

For investors, the appeal rests partly on the contractual payments SpaceX would be required to make, rather than solely on the future resale value or operating performance of the equipment. However, the lease structure also places significant responsibility on SpaceX to continue meeting its payment obligations over the contract period.

An investor presentation cited in the Bloomberg report said SpaceX would remain responsible for rent even if the equipment were damaged or unforeseen events disrupted operations.

"Rent is owed regardless of equipment condition, casualty or force majeure, providing investors with a clean look-through to SpaceX credit," the presentation reportedly stated.

That provision is key to the transaction's risk allocation. Investors financing the equipment would not necessarily bear the direct financial consequences of damage, operational disruption, or other events affecting the hardware. Instead, the contractual obligation would remain with SpaceX.

The arrangement therefore gives investors exposure to SpaceX's ability to meet its lease commitments, even though the debt is issued through a separate financing vehicle. Keeping the borrowing away from the company's balance sheet does not eliminate the underlying economic obligation to make payments.

The scale of the deal also illustrates how AI infrastructure investment is increasingly relying on specialized financing structures. As demand for computing capacity rises, technology companies and financial institutions are exploring leasing arrangements and asset-backed transactions to fund expensive hardware without relying entirely on direct corporate borrowing.

The financing is expected to provide access to substantial computing resources for SpaceX as it develops its AI business alongside its existing operations. The equipment is expected to become available from the first half of 2027, meaning the company's payment obligations will extend across a period in which demand for AI computing, hardware costs and the economics of its services could change significantly.

Analysts believe Goldman Sachs and Apollo's effort to bring additional investors into the transaction will test institutional appetite for large-scale AI hardware financing. It will also offer a measure of how investors assess the credit exposure created by long-term equipment leases, particularly when the financing is structured outside the balance sheet of the company using the assets.