# SpaceX-Apollo GPU Finance Lease On **October 24, 2026**, [[SpaceX]] signed a binding commitment with a fund managed by [[Apollo Global Management]] to finance the AI chips for its data centers. The Apollo fund will buy GPU systems and related equipment and lease them to SpaceX. SpaceX expects its principal payments over the life of the leases to total about **$40 billion**. Both companies call it the largest GPU financing on record. ## The terms From SpaceX's 8-K (filed October 26, Item 8.01) and Apollo's announcement: | | | |---|---| | **Lessee** | SpaceX, for the AI business it absorbed from [[xAI]] | | **Lessor** | An entity managed by Apollo Global Management | | **Equipment** | GPU systems and related hardware. Apollo says they are [[NVIDIA]]'s next-generation Vera Rubin chips | | **Size** | About $40B of expected principal payments | | **Structure** | A master finance lease. Equipment arrives in tranches, and each tranche is leased for about five to five and a quarter years | | **Rent** | Quarterly: one-twentieth of the financed cost plus interest at a fixed rate set when each tranche is priced | | **Timing** | Expected to close by the end of 2026. The first leases are expected to start in the first half of 2027 | | **Status** | A commitment subject to closing conditions, not yet a completed financing | ## Why it matters **AI is being paid for off the bond market.** SpaceX already owes about $12.9 billion to [[Valor Equity Partners]], the fund of SpaceX director [[Antonio Gracias]], under hardware leases its accounts treat as loans (see [[SpaceX-Valor AI Hardware Lease Financing]]). This commitment is about three times larger. Put together, a large share of the computing behind SpaceX's AI business is rented from private-credit funds rather than bought with SpaceX's own cash or raised from public bondholders. **The chips wear out faster than the debt is paid.** Each lease runs about five years. That is about as long as a top GPU stays useful for training frontier models. Investors are betting SpaceX's AI revenue arrives fast enough to cover the rent. **It is a commitment, not a loan yet.** Until closing, Apollo can walk away if conditions are not met. The figure is SpaceX's estimate of the payments, not money already lent. ## Connects to - [[SpaceX-Valor AI Hardware Lease Financing]] — the related-party version of the same idea - [[SpaceX $25B Bond Sale]] — the public-market side of the funding - [[SpaceX Q3 2026 Earnings Report]] — the AI spending these leases support - [[Apollo-Blackstone Anthropic Chip Financing]] — the same lenders financing a rival - [[Data Centers]] ## See Also - [[SpaceX]] · [[SpaceX Investors]] · [[SpaceX Events]] - [[Apollo Global Management]] · [[NVIDIA]] · [[xAI]] - [[Deals Hub]]