SpaceX Strikes $40B GPU Leasing Deal with Private Credit Players - Morningstar

SpaceX has finalized a $40 billion master finance lease to purchase Nvidia GPUs, which will support the development of its subsidiary xAI and related data center projects. Apollo and Goldman Sachs led the committed financing, with Goldman Sachs also serving as the structuring agent.

Affiliates of BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and KKR provided additional financing commitments. Under the terms, Apollo will acquire 'Vera Rubin' GPUs from Nvidia and related equipment to lease to SpaceX, with purchases made in tranches and lease schedules of roughly 5.00-5.25 years.

Lease Terms

SpaceX will pay rent equal to 5% of the financed cost of each tranche, plus a fixed annual rate on the outstanding balance, according to an Oct. 26 8-K filing. The company called the deal the largest-ever committed GPU financing, exceeding a $36 billion structured notes deal finalized this summer to purchase and lease GPUs to Anthropic, which was backstopped by Broadcom and led by Apollo and Blackstone.

AI Development

The new GPUs will power Grok, xAI's LLM product, and support the company's terrestrial compute buildout. SpaceX has announced plans to build additional data centers in orbit. The deal is expected to close prior to year-end, with leasing commencing in the first half of 2027.

Private credit lenders have been buzzing about the potential to finance the data center boom, which some see as a once-in-a-career investment opportunity.