Elon Musk at VivaTech in Paris, 16 June 2023
SpaceX has secured $40 billion in debt financing to buy graphics processing units (GPUs), the chips used to run AI systems, Elon Musk said in a post on X on Sunday.
As of the past few weeks, debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money for any company that doesn’t have substantial revenue independent of AI data centers.
SpaceX closed $40B of debt for GPUs, but we’re investment grade and have Starlink & launch revenue.
That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation. Some will make it through, but not many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2026
Musk did not name the lenders or disclose the interest rate, and SpaceX has not published the financing terms.
According to Musk, most of the debt is callable, meaning SpaceX can repay it early. In a second post, he said the money would cover chips arriving in the first and second quarters of next year and would not significantly affect spending this quarter.
Musk credited SpaceX’s investment-grade credit rating and revenue from Starlink and rocket launches with helping it secure the financing.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Apollo Global Management was expected to lead a financing package worth around $40 billion.
The proposed deal would combine approximately $10 billion in bank loans with $30 billion in investment-grade debt. Musk did not confirm whether Sunday’s announcement referred to that same arrangement.
He also used the posts to warn about neocloud companies, which rent out AI computing capacity and rely heavily on data centres.
“Debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money” for companies without substantial revenue streams outside AI data centres, Musk wrote.
He predicted that many of the more than 200 neocloud companies would fail or merge, naming neither specific targets nor a timeframe. The sector includes Nebius and CoreWeave . Musk added that SpaceX would not acquire any of them.
SpaceX absorbed Musk’s AI company xAI and went public in June. The company now generates more revenue from AI than from rocket launches, according to its latest results.
Last week, SpaceX reported that revenue rose 161% to $14.58 billion in the quarter ending September 30. AI revenue grew almost tenfold to $7.56 billion over the same period.
On the same earnings call, chief financial officer Bret Johnsen said SpaceX expects to spend between $35 billion and $40 billion on equipment and facilities in the current quarter.
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