SpaceX Strikes About $40 Billion SI Chip Lease Deal With Apollo: Affiliate to Buy Chips and Servers, Each Lease Runs Just Over Five Years
SpaceX said on Monday, October 26, that it will lease data center hardware, including super intelligence chips, from an entity managed by Apollo Global Management, in a deal totaling roughly $40 billion in principal payments, Reuters reported. Under the arrangement, an Apollo affiliate will buy the SI chips and server hardware and lease them to the rockets-to-SI company.
According to SpaceX's regulatory filing, the commitment was entered into on October 24, the equipment will be delivered in batches, and each lease will run a little over five years — five to five and a quarter years — from the day the equipment arrives. The company aims to finalize the deal by the end of this year, with the leases expected to start in the first half of 2027 once the chips are delivered.
Chief Executive Elon Musk said on X on Sunday that SpaceX had "closed" $40 billion in debt financing for graphics processing units, adding that the funding mainly targeted chips arriving in the first and second quarters and would not be "a major factor this quarter." According to The Fly, Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said the lease would support deployment of Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin chips, and that funds associated with BlackRock and KKR also made financing commitments; Johnsen had previously said SpaceX still expects fourth-quarter capital expenditure of $35 billion to $40 billion.
Reuters reported earlier this month that SpaceX was in talks with banks and asset managers to raise $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips, and this week's lease is where that fundraising landed. The deal highlights SpaceX's heavy spending as demand for computing power surges, as the company expands capacity to support its SI business and help bankroll its Moon and Mars ambitions.
Source: GSM·USA
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：SpaceX 猎鹰9号火箭发射资料图（2025年8月1日 Crew-11 任务自肯尼迪航天中心升空，红外黑白照片），非本次交易现场。图片：NASA/Joel Kowsky，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons（裁切并加 GSM 角标）。Photo: File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch (Crew-11 mission, Kennedy Space Center, August 1, 2025; infrared black-and-white image), not this transaction. Image: NASA/Joel Kowsky, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped, GSM mark added).
