Musk Says SpaceX Has Closed $40bn of Debt to Buy GPUs

Elon Musk says SpaceX has closed $40bn of debt to pay for graphics processing units (GPUs), the chips that run its AI data centres. “SpaceX closed $40B of debt for GPUs, but we’re investment grade and have Starlink & launch revenue,” he wrote on X at 19:11 GMT on 25 October, in reply to the investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

The claim is Musk’s alone for now. He named no lenders, terms or structure, SpaceX had filed nothing on the deal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by Sunday evening, and no bank or investor has confirmed it. As recently as 23 October, Bloomberg reported that the same $40bn package was still in pricing talks, which TSN covered in its report on the SpaceX chip-debt talks.

What Musk said, and when

Musk’s first post came in reply to Palihapitiya, who had written that “there will be a lot of partially stranded compute” in 2027. Musk answered “Pretty much” and went further: “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.”

He then set SpaceX apart, citing its credit rating and its Starlink and launch businesses, and added: “That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation. Some will make it through, but not many.” Neoclouds are the newer companies that rent out GPU capacity to AI developers. His view lands as lenders grow warier of AI borrowing: TSN has reported record prices for credit insurance on Oracle and Broadcom in its story on the AI borrowing spree, and Apollo’s Torsten Slok said this weekend that AI has shown no payoff outside Big Tech.

At 19:37 GMT, the Tesla and SpaceX commentator Sawyer Merritt quoted the post and placed it next to SpaceX’s capital spending plans. Musk replied 13 minutes later: “This is primarily callable debt for GPU purchases that will arrive in Q1 and Q2. Not a major factor this quarter.” That second post gives no year for those quarters. Callable debt can be repaid by the borrower before it matures, usually on set terms.

Reuters reported the statement soon afterwards, in a story carried by Investing.com under the headline “Musk says SpaceX raised $40 billion in debt for GPUs”. It paraphrased Musk as saying SpaceX’s investment-grade status and its Starlink and launch revenue “had helped preserve its access to credit”. Reuters gave no lender or terms.

What SpaceX’s own figures show

Merritt’s point about spending checks out against the company’s own words. On SpaceX’s third-quarter call on 20 October, chief financial officer Bret Johnsen said, according to the call transcript: “we expect fourth quarter capital expenditures to now be in the range of $35 billion to $40 billion for this quarter.” Capital spending in the third quarter was $19.6bn, “primarily in support of our SI compute build-out, Starship infrastructure, and satellite production”, he said. SI is SpaceX’s term for its superintelligence, or AI, business. TSN covered the quarter’s $4.4bn profit and Musk’s 13-gigawatt compute goal from the same call.

Johnsen also said SpaceX was talking to “a number of available pools of debt capital”, and added: “But we have a lot of conviction that we are going to be able to do this in a very measured fashion and continue to keep ourselves in that IG status along the way.” IG means investment grade.

SpaceX’s quarterly report, filed on 22 October, shows total debt of $38bn at 30 September, against $51.3bn of cash and $38.6bn of marketable securities. It also records about $12.9bn of debt from equipment leases for AI hardware with Valor Equity Partners, which it says “were deemed to be a failed sale-leaseback transaction”. Bloomberg reported that the xAI-linked deal had been sought as off-balance-sheet debt.

What earlier reports said about the deal

Everything known about the deal’s shape comes from reporting before Musk’s post, based on people who asked not to be named. Bloomberg reported on 7 October that SpaceX was in early talks to borrow about $40bn to buy Nvidia chips. On 23 October it reported that the money would go through a special purpose vehicle to keep the debt off SpaceX’s books, with bankers led by Goldman Sachs discussing it with investors led by Apollo Global Management, in three tranches of private-placement bonds.

Semafor reported on 22 October, also citing unnamed people, that the lowest-rated portion was expected to pay about 8.3%, and said the pricing “could change”. Musk’s posts confirm none of these details: the lenders, the vehicle, the tranches, the yields or the chip supplier.

Why ‘callable’ and ‘Q1 and Q2’ matter

Two of Musk’s words carry most of the information. “Callable” suggests SpaceX kept the right to repay early, which would let it refinance if credit costs fall from the levels reported last week. That fits his own description of a market that has turned against AI borrowers. Yields near the 8.3% Semafor reported are easier to accept if the debt can be replaced later.

“Q1 and Q2” also separates the $40bn from this quarter’s spending. Merritt set the sum beside the $35bn to $40bn capex guidance, but Musk says the debt is “Not a major factor this quarter”. On his account, it pays for chips due early next year, while this quarter’s build-out draws on cash flow and the cash and securities in the 10-Q.

A claim that still needs paperwork

The gap is disclosure. A $40bn financing is larger than SpaceX’s whole debt load at 30 September, and investors will want to know whether it sits on the balance sheet or in a separate vehicle, as Bloomberg described. The Valor deal shows why that matters: debt meant to stay off the books ended up on them. Until a lender, a term sheet or a filing appears, the size and timing are Musk’s figures and the structure is reported, not confirmed. His warning about neoclouds, meanwhile, is a forecast about rivals, and it doubles as a pitch for SpaceX’s own credit.

More on the group is on TSN’s Musk companies hub. The next test is simple: whether SpaceX files an 8-K, the form US companies use to report material agreements, before those first GPUs arrive.

Sources

• Elon Musk, post on X, 25 October 2026, 19:11 GMT: x.com
• Elon Musk, post on X, 25 October 2026, 19:50 GMT: x.com
• SpaceX, Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, 20 October 2026 (Quartr via Stock Analysis): stockanalysis.com
• SpaceX, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026, SEC EDGAR: sec.gov
• Reuters via Investing.com, “Musk says SpaceX raised $40 billion in debt for GPUs”, 25 October 2026: investing.com
• Bloomberg News, “SpaceX $40 Billion Off-Balance Sheet Debt Snarled by AI Turmoil”, 23 October 2026, via Bloomberg Tax: bloombergtax.com
• Semafor, “SpaceX $40 billion debt deal gets pricey as AI fears spread”, 22 October 2026: semafor.com

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