SpaceX is in talks with banks and asset managers to raise about $40 billion to buy Nvidia artificial-intelligence chips, according to a Reuters report this week citing two sources, which confirmed an earlier report in the Financial Times. If completed, it would be one of the largest corporate financings tied directly to AI hardware.
How the deal would work
According to one source, the package would consist of roughly $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt. The FT reported that private-credit firm Apollo is expected to lead the deal and help place the debt with a broad range of investors. SpaceX is also said to be in talks with asset manager PIMCO. Apollo and PIMCO declined to comment, and SpaceX and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
SpaceX shares fell about 2% in early trading after the report, while Nvidia rose 0.5%. Elon Musk took SpaceX public in June in a record $86 billion initial public offering.
Feeding the Colossus
The chips are expected to support Musk’s rapidly expanding AI computing operations. Musk said last month that xAI’s Colossus 2 data centre could more than double the number of Nvidia chips it uses by December, and that the company plans to use Nvidia hardware exclusively in its data centres.
A borrowing boom — and growing caution
SpaceX is far from alone. Technology companies are increasingly turning to debt markets to finance the vast data centres that AI models require. Morgan Stanley estimates that AI infrastructure will need about $1.5 trillion in external financing by 2028.
In August, Nvidia partnered with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR on financing platforms intended to mobilise more than $500 billion for AI infrastructure. Elsewhere, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is reported to be seeking up to $100 billion from Gulf investors for an AI-focused fund, although talks are said to be preliminary.
Not every deal is getting done. Australian AI-infrastructure company Firmus, backed by Nvidia and Blackstone, scrapped a planned initial public offering of about $5 billion this week after reports that only 42 megawatts of a planned 1 gigawatt of capacity was operational. Reuters reported that lenders and investors are becoming more cautious about funding the expansion.
Why it matters
For most of the AI boom, the largest technology companies paid for chips and data centres from their enormous cash flows. The shift towards borrowing spreads the financial risk to bondholders, banks and private-credit funds. If AI revenues grow as fast as the industry expects, the debt will look like a smart bet. If they disappoint, the AI boom could become a credit-market story — one that investors far beyond Silicon Valley will have to watch.