# SpaceX-Valor AI Hardware Lease Financing [[SpaceX]] rents part of the computing hardware behind its AI business from [[Valor Equity Partners]]. Valor is run by [[Antonio Gracias]], who sits on SpaceX's board. SpaceX's own quarterly filings say these leases are really loans: the accountants call them "failed sale-leaseback" transactions, which means the hardware stays on SpaceX's books and what it owes Valor is recorded as debt. At the end of September 2026 that debt was about **$12.9 billion**. ## The numbers All figures come from SpaceX's quarterly reports (10-Q) filed with the SEC, Note 17, "Related Party Transactions." | Date | Owed to Valor (current + long-term) | Interest paid to Valor in the quarter | |---|---|---| | Dec 31, 2025 | $455M + $4,052M = **$4.5B** | | | Mar 31, 2026 | | $186M | | Jun 30, 2026 | $2,039M + $11,290M = **$13.3B** | $327M | | Sep 30, 2026 | $2,181M + $10,716M = **$12.9B** | $351M | The March-quarter interest is derived: the six-month figure ($513M) minus the June quarter ($327M). Interest for the first nine months of 2026 totals **$864M**. The latest lease was signed in **April 2026** by SpaceX's AI subsidiary. The June filing says SpaceX had "previously entered into similar agreements with Valor," so the arrangement goes back before the June 2026 listing. The balance roughly tripled in the first half of 2026 and dipped slightly in the third quarter as SpaceX paid it down. ## Why it matters **The lender sits on the board.** A director's fund is now one of SpaceX's largest creditors. Valor is also SpaceX's second-largest shareholder after [[Elon Musk]]. So Gracias's fund earns on SpaceX twice: as an owner, and as the lender collecting over $300 million a quarter in interest. **It is how the AI build-out gets paid for.** SpaceX spent $16.4 billion on its AI segment in the third quarter alone (see [[SpaceX Q3 2026 Earnings Report]]). The [[SpaceX $25B Bond Sale]] raised money from the public bond market. These leases raise it from inside Musk's circle instead. **It is disclosed, but quietly.** The arrangement appears only in a footnote to the quarterly reports. No press release announced it, and it never shows up in a government-contract database, because no government money is involved. It sits alongside two other related-party items in the same note: - **[[Tesla]]:** SpaceX bought $151 million of Tesla Megapack batteries in the third quarter ($480 million so far in 2026). - **[[The Boring Company]]:** SpaceX booked a **$561 million** paper gain on its stake in the tunnelling company, which Musk controls, after Boring raised new money in September. That one mark-up is more than half of SpaceX's $1.025 billion of "other income" for the quarter. ## Connects to - [[SpaceX Q3 2026 Earnings Report]] — the quarter this financing paid for - [[SpaceX Q2 2026 Earnings Report]] — the June 30 balance first appeared in that quarter's filing - [[SpaceX $25B Bond Sale]] — the public-market side of the same funding need - [[xAI-SpaceX Merger]] — how the AI business came inside SpaceX - [[Defense Tech Conflicts of Interest]] - [[Musk-Thiel Funding Map]] ## See Also - [[SpaceX]] · [[SpaceX Investors]] · [[SpaceX Events]] - [[Valor Equity Partners]] · [[Antonio Gracias]] - [[Deals Hub]]