Goldman, Apollo Sell Slices of SpaceX $40B GPU Deal - Briefs Finance

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc. have begun sounding out Wall Street investors to take slices of a multi-tranche financing tied to SpaceX's GPU buildout. In initial talks, some investors are being asked to pledge up to $500 million ahead of the formal syndication, aiming to accelerate closing, according to people familiar with the talks, who said syndication is slated to start soon.

SpaceX has called it the largest GPU financing of its kind on record, set up so the debt does not appear on SpaceX's balance sheet. Spokespeople from Apollo and Goldman offered no comment, while a representative for SpaceX did not respond.

Deal Structure

Under the approximately $40 billion arrangement - described as a win for Elon Musk - Apollo-backed Atlas SP will run the special-purpose entity that will acquire Nvidia Corp. chips and issue the related debt, a setup intended to help safeguard SpaceX's corporate credit profile. For five years, SpaceX will lease the chips, and it will not offer a residual value guarantee or similar credit backstops.

SpaceX's obligation to pay rent is absolute. Rent is owed regardless of equipment condition, casualty or force majeure, providing investors with a clean look-through to SpaceX credit.

The package includes several pieces, among them an $8.3 billion senior secured loan that banks will syndicate and multiple bond tranches sold to asset managers, according to people familiar with the deal. Goldman led the loan portion, Apollo served as the principal buyer of the bond pieces, and Pacific Investment Management Co. also participated.

GPU Funding Timeline

The debt, plus a $7 billion lease prepayment, will fund about $47.3 billion of GPU equipment - Nvidia's latest Rubin chips - scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2027. SpaceX unveiled the financing in October, and investors agreed to the package before it was priced, leaving lenders exposed to market swings.

As doubts grew about whether AI revenues can justify the spending, lenders cooled on some neocloud rivals, including CoreWeave Inc. Those pressures intensified after Democrats swept into power in Congress in the midterm elections, as voter concerns about rising living expenses and the war in Iran mounted.

Political Impact

The issue of data centers turned into a key campaign battleground, most notably in Texas, which flipped blue a few months after halting approvals for new builds. Markets reacted sharply to the political shift, pushing down the share prices of SpaceX and Tesla Inc. The company locates its data centers in Memphis, Tennessee, and is building more locations in Mississippi.

For investors mapping AI infrastructure risk, the structure puts the borrowing into an SPV that keeps debt off SpaceX's balance sheet while giving lenders hard rent promises with no force majeure out. It also shows where capital wants to sit - banks on a senior secured loan and asset managers in bond tranches - even as the AI trade reassesses.