SpaceX commits to $40 billion Apollo lease for Nvidia GPUs

SpaceX has made a binding commitment to lease Nvidia Vera Rubin graphics processors and related equipment from an entity managed by Apollo Global Management in a deal the company expects to total about $40 billion in principal payments, according to a securities filing and a company release.

SpaceX said in a release Monday that the master finance lease represents “the largest committed GPU financing.” The chips are for what the company called its “terrestrial compute buildout.”

In a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SpaceX said it signed the binding commitment letter Oct. 24. Under the planned lease, the Apollo-managed lessor will buy graphics processing unit pods and related equipment and lease them to SpaceX for use at data centers the company selects, the filing said.

What’s driving it

SpaceX tied the financing to its push into artificial intelligence computing. “SpaceX aims to deploy the largest compute infrastructure in the world,” the company’s chief financial officer said in the release. “As demand for compute continues to accelerate, we’re seeing less than one year payback periods on our SI infrastructure investments.” The 8-K was signed by Bret Johnsen as chief financial officer.

The CFO said the lease “diversifies our funding sources and addresses a notable portion of the funding required to deliver on our growth plans,” including bringing compute online to power Grok for businesses and consumers and to serve cloud services customers, according to the release.

The equipment will arrive in tranches, each under its own lease schedule running about five to five and one-quarter years from its start date, the filing said. Rent is due quarterly in advance and will generally equal one-twentieth of a tranche’s financed cost, plus an amount calculated at a fixed annual rate on the outstanding balance and certain ongoing costs, according to the 8-K. The rate will be set at pricing, before SpaceX enters the lease.

Why it matters

The structure lets SpaceX spread the cost of a large chip purchase over roughly five years instead of paying for it when the hardware arrives. Under the terms in the filing, a payment of one-twentieth of financed cost each quarter retires a tranche’s principal over 20 quarters, or five years, which lines up with the stated lease terms. Because rent is paid in advance each quarter, cash goes out as the equipment is used rather than in one lump sum at delivery.

That timing matters for an asset class that ages quickly, as new GPU generations arrive regularly. A five-year schedule means SpaceX keeps paying for each tranche well after newer chips may reach the market, so the economics depend on the company’s own claim that the investments pay back in less than a year.

SpaceX describes the deal as a finance lease. Under U.S. accounting rules set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, finance leases are generally recorded on a company’s balance sheet as an asset and a matching liability, so the arrangement shifts the timing of cash outflows more than it removes the obligation. The 8-K’s risk language also notes that deliveries, lease terms and total principal payments may differ from current expectations.

Who has a stake

Apollo and Goldman Sachs led the group of financing parties, with Goldman serving as sole structuring agent, SpaceX said. Funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, along with capital accounts advised by KKR, made anchor commitments, according to the release.

The lease will deliver Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips, SpaceX said. SpaceX’s Class A common stock trades on Nasdaq under the symbol SPCX, according to the filing.

The deal follows SpaceX’s earlier disclosures on its Super Intelligence business, which AI Early Edition covered Oct. 22.

What’s next

The lease is not final. SpaceX’s entry into the master finance lease is subject to specified closing conditions and is expected to close before the end of 2026, according to both the filing and the release. The lease schedules are expected to begin in the first half of 2027 as the GPUs are delivered, SpaceX said.

In its forward-looking statements, SpaceX said the transaction may not close on the anticipated terms or timeline, or at all.