Chips for rent: SpaceX leases Nvidia hardware worth around 40 billion dollars
SpaceX has committed to a lease for AI chips and servers worth around 40 billion dollars. An Apollo-managed entity will buy the hardware and lease it out – according to SpaceX the largest GPU financing ever.
Symbolic image · Photo: SpaceX / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
SpaceX has struck one of the AI industry's largest financing deals: Elon Musk's space and AI company has made a binding commitment to lease graphics processors and other data-centre equipment worth around 40 billion dollars. An entity managed by Apollo Global Management will buy the equipment and lease it to SpaceX, the company said on 26 October. The deal covers Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin chip generation.
The financing is led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs; BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and KKR-advised accounts made anchor commitments. The lease is expected to close by the end of 2026. According to Reuters, the lease terms begin when the chips are delivered in the first half of 2027 and each run for a little over five years.
SpaceX mainly wants the computing power to run its Grok chatbot for businesses and consumers and to serve cloud customers. The lease diversifies the company's funding sources, its CFO said. According to Reuters, CFO Bret Johnsen still expects fourth-quarter capital expenditure of 35 to 40 billion dollars.