SpaceX Nvidia Chip Lease: Goldman and Apollo Seek Buyers for $40 Billion Deal

Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global Management are looking for outside investors to take pieces of SpaceX's roughly $40 billion Nvidia chip lease, in the first big test of whether Wall Street will bankroll the artificial intelligence hardware boom at this scale. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, November 4, 2026, that the two firms are sounding out buyers for stakes of up to $500 million each before formal syndication begins.

Key Points

• Goldman Sachs and Apollo are seeking outside investors for stakes of up to $500 million each in SpaceX's roughly $40 billion Nvidia chip lease financing.
• The package includes an $8.3 billion senior secured loan led by Goldman, plus bond tranches, with Apollo a principal bond investor and PIMCO also in.
• With a $7 billion lease prepayment, the financing supports about $47.3 billion of Nvidia Vera Rubin equipment, due in the first half of 2027.
• SpaceX signed the deal on October 24, 2026, agreeing to about $40 billion in lease payments over five to five-and-a-quarter years.
• SpaceX must keep paying rent even if the equipment is damaged, and investors carry the risk of what used AI chips are worth when the leases end.

What Happened

According to Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs and Apollo have begun approaching outside investors about taking slices of the financing behind SpaceX's Nvidia chip lease, offering stakes of up to $500 million each ahead of a formal syndication. The package includes an $8.3 billion senior secured loan led by Goldman, to be syndicated to banks, alongside several bond tranches. Apollo is a principal investor in the bonds, and PIMCO is also taking part.

The financing supports a huge hardware order. Together with a $7 billion prepayment, it underwrites about $47.3 billion of Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin equipment, due in the first half of 2027. The chips are destined for SpaceX's terrestrial computing buildout — the data centres the rocket company is building on the ground to run its Grok chatbot and its cloud services.

Background: The Deal SpaceX Announced on October 26

The financing follows SpaceX's announcement on October 26, 2026, that it had signed a binding commitment letter on October 24 for an Apollo-managed entity to buy GPU pods and lease them back to SpaceX. The deal was disclosed in a Form 8-K filing. Under it, SpaceX expects to make principal payments of about $40 billion over lease schedules of roughly five to five-and-a-quarter years, with rent paid quarterly in advance. Closing is expected before the end of 2026. Goldman Sachs acted as sole structuring agent, and anchor commitments came from funds managed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and accounts advised by KKR.

SpaceX described the arrangement as the largest committed GPU financing ever arranged, ahead of a $36 billion structured notes deal for GPUs leased to Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot. The timing is also significant: the deal was announced just as Meta raised $95 billion in a single day of AI spending, and days after Nvidia confirmed a $3 billion investment in Meta.

SpaceX Nvidia Chip Lease: How the $40 Billion Deal Works

At its core, the deal is a sale-and-leaseback for computer chips. An Apollo-managed entity buys the Nvidia GPU pods and leases them to SpaceX, which pays rent over about five years. But the terms reported by Bloomberg are unusually strict. Documents reviewed by Bloomberg show that SpaceX must keep paying rent regardless of the condition of the equipment, including in cases of casualty or force majeure. If the chips are damaged or destroyed, the rent still comes due.

Just as important, the deal gives investors no residual value guarantee. When the leases end in about five years, the investors own used AI chips — and nobody can say today what those chips will be worth. Nvidia releases new chip generations roughly every year, and each one makes the previous generation less valuable. That is the central gamble of GPU-backed lending, and it is why Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has called it "the big idea" in AI finance.

Reactions

Neither SpaceX, Goldman Sachs nor Apollo has issued a public statement about the syndication effort, and the reports checked for this article carried no direct quotes from executives at any of the three firms. What is on the record is the structure of the deal itself, as disclosed in SpaceX's October filing, and Bloomberg's reporting on the documents behind it. SpaceX presented the deal as the largest committed GPU financing to date, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang has publicly championed GPU-backed loans as a major new financing idea.

Why It Matters

The syndication is a test case for the entire AI economy. The world's biggest technology companies are planning to spend trillions of dollars on chips and data centres over the next few years, and they cannot all pay cash. If GPU-backed loans can be sold on to banks, pension funds and other investors, the AI buildout can keep growing at its current pace. If the market balks, the cost of financing AI infrastructure rises — and the pace of the buildout slows.

There is also a broader lesson for investors. The deal shows how far the AI boom has moved from the stock market into the credit markets. A year ago, the story was about share prices; now it is about loans, bonds and lease structures, with corporate earnings across industries being judged against the cost of funding this expansion.

What Happens Next

The immediate next step is the formal syndication, when Goldman begins offering the $8.3 billion senior secured loan to banks and the bond tranches are marketed more widely. SpaceX expects the lease to close before the end of 2026, with the Vera Rubin equipment arriving in the first half of 2027.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is the SpaceX Nvidia chip lease?

About $40 billion over roughly five to five-and-a-quarter years, rent paid quarterly in advance. With a $7 billion prepayment, it supports about $47.3 billion of Nvidia Vera Rubin equipment.

Who is financing the deal?

Goldman Sachs is the sole structuring agent and leads an $8.3 billion senior secured loan. Apollo is a principal bond investor, with PIMCO also taking part. BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management funds, and accounts advised by KKR, provided anchor commitments.

What are the chips for?

Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin chips will power SpaceX's terrestrial computing buildout, running the Grok chatbot and SpaceX cloud services. Delivery is expected in the first half of 2027.

What happens if the chips lose value?

Investors carry that risk: the deal gives no residual value guarantee. SpaceX must also keep paying rent even if the equipment is damaged or destroyed.

When does the deal close?

SpaceX expects closing before the end of 2026. The syndication of the loan and bond tranches to outside investors is under way now.