SpaceX Signs ~$40 Billion GPU Financing Lease Agreement with Apollo to Purchase NVIDIA Vera Rubin Chips
SpaceX has signed a financing lease agreement for GPUs and related equipment with Apollo Global Management, with estimated total lease payments of approximately $40 billion, to purchase NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin chips. Goldman Sachs served as sole structuring advisor, with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and accounts under KKR as the main commitment parties, and the transaction is expected to close before the end of this year. Equipment will be delivered in batches, with each batch corresponding to a separate lease schedule, lease terms of approximately 5 to 5.25 years, and each batch expected to commence successively in the first half of 2027.
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This financing lease lays out the chip procurement, lease term, and phased delivery structure clearly, which can be used to observe how the funding arrangements for compute expansion are structured.
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SpaceX is making a massive $40 billion bet on AI computing infrastructure. This financing lease transaction, led by Apollo Global Management, will bring in Nvidia's latest Vera Rubin chips, highlighting the strategic ambition of the commercial space giant to expand aggressively into the field of artificial intelligence.
According to Bloomberg, SpaceX has signed a financing lease agreement with Apollo Global Management for GPUs and related equipment, and SpaceX estimates the total lease payments at approximately $40 billion. The agreement is intended to provide hardware support for SpaceX's computing expansion plan, which the company positions as a key layout toward a "superintelligent future."
The transaction is massive in scale, with several top financial institutions participating. Goldman Sachs served as sole structuring advisor, and BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and accounts under KKR participated in the financing as major commitment parties. The transaction is expected to close before the end of this year.
Transaction structure: delivered in batches, lease term of about five years
Under the agreement, SpaceX and Apollo signed a binding commitment letter to enter into a master financing lease agreement. Under this framework, Apollo will be responsible for procuring data center equipment and leasing it to SpaceX. The equipment will be delivered in batches, with each batch corresponding to a separate lease schedule and a lease term of approximately 5 to 5.25 years.
The lease schedules for each batch are expected to commence successively in the first half of 2027. The final signing of the master financing lease agreement is still subject to several closing conditions, which the parties expect to be satisfied within the year.
Chip selection: betting on Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin architecture
The Nvidia Vera Rubin chips selected by SpaceX are Nvidia's next-generation flagship products for data centers, representing the current cutting edge of AI computing hardware. SpaceX said this computing infrastructure buildout serves its defined goal of a "superintelligent future," showing that the company is investing in AI capabilities as a strategic-level asset beyond its core space business.
This $40 billion financing is led by Apollo Global Management, with Goldman Sachs deeply involved as sole structuring advisor. Funds and accounts under BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and trustee accounts under KKR all completed commitments as major anchor investors, highlighting the strong recognition by top Wall Street institutions of this ultra-large-scale AI infrastructure financing project. For the participants, this type of long-term equipment financing lease provides exposure to stable cash-flow assets tied to the AI computing expansion cycle. Risk disclosure and disclaimer
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