SpaceX signs a binding $40 billion GPU lease commitment that has not closed

On 24 October 2026 SpaceX signed a binding commitment letter for a GPU finance lease with an Apollo-managed lessor. [1] SpaceX expects about $40 billion of principal payments, and the master lease is not yet closed.

Update, 26 October 2026: An earlier version of this story said Musk's posts were the only source and that no SpaceX filing existed. The 8-K describes a binding lease commitment that is still subject to closing conditions, and that may not close [1].

What does SpaceX's filing say?

On 24 October 2026, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. entered a binding commitment letter to enter a master finance lease with an entity managed by Apollo Global Management, the filing says [1]. The lessor would acquire graphics-processing-unit pods and related equipment and lease them to SpaceX for data centres the company selects [1].

Each delivery tranche would have its own schedule of about five to five and a quarter years. Rent is due quarterly in advance: generally one-twentieth of that tranche's financed cost, plus a fixed rate on the outstanding balance and certain costs. The rate is set at pricing before SpaceX signs the master lease. Aggregate principal payments are expected to total about $40 billion [1].

Signing the master finance lease depends on specified closing conditions and is expected before the end of 2026. Lease schedules are expected to start in the first half of 2027, when the GPUs are delivered. SpaceX says the transaction may not close on the expected terms or timeline, or at all [1].

What did Musk say about the $40 billion?

On 25 October, the day after the commitment letter, Elon Musk wrote on X that SpaceX closed $40 billion of debt for GPUs, citing its investment grade and its Starlink and launch revenue. He was replying to Chamath Palihapitiya, who had argued that 2027 would bring stranded compute and a clear-out of bad bets [2].

In a follow-up he called the financing primarily callable debt for GPU purchases arriving in the first and second quarters, and not a major factor this quarter [2]. He named no year. The 8-K places the start of the schedules in the first half of 2027 [1].

Has the lease closed?

Not yet. The commitment letter is binding. The master finance lease itself has not been signed, the 8-K says, and closing depends on specified conditions. SpaceX expects to sign before year end and warns that the deal may not close [1].

Reuters, reporting on 25 October from the posts, said it was not clear what Musk meant by closed or whether investors had agreed a price, and it named no lenders [3]. The filing the next day names an Apollo-managed lessor and says the fixed rate is set at pricing before entry. It does not give the rate [1].

Earlier in October, Reuters reported talks to raise $40 billion for Nvidia chips [3]. Bloomberg, cited by CNBC, described an off-balance-sheet special purpose vehicle and said Goldman Sachs was leading talks that included Apollo [4]. The 8-K describes a finance lease with an Apollo-managed entity. It does not mention that vehicle or Goldman Sachs [1].

Why does Musk expect a neocloud shakeout?

Musk predicted that more than 200 neoclouds face failures and consolidation as debt markets shut them out. He wrote that some will make it through, but not many, and later said SpaceX is not buying any neoclouds, calling that pointless [2][3].

Neoclouds such as Nebius and CoreWeave mostly serve tech customers with capacity built for AI, unlike larger cloud firms, Reuters notes [3]. According to Reuters, investors have started betting against US neocloud and data centre companies after fears that their debt-fuelled build-out was unsustainable [3]. Earlier on 25 October, Musk wrote that he expects a lot of stranded compute in partly finished data centres [2].

How much is SpaceX spending on AI?

Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen expects fourth-quarter capital expenditure of 35 to 40 billion dollars, according to Reuters [3]. SpaceX's revenue for the quarter ended 30 September rose 161 percent from a year earlier to 14.58 billion dollars, and AI revenue rose almost tenfold to 7.56 billion dollars [3].

CNBC reports that the AI segment, which SpaceX calls Super Intelligence, is now its largest unit, up from 813 million dollars a year earlier [4].

Our read

Opinion: Musk's post said the financing had closed. The filing the next day describes a binding commitment to a lease that is still subject to closing conditions and that may not close. His neocloud warning is a view of the credit market, not a count this desk has checked. The $40 billion in the 8-K is an expected total of principal payments, not a completed loan [1][2].

What we could not verify

• The fixed rate. The 8-K says it will be set at pricing before SpaceX enters the master finance lease, and it states no number [1].
• Whether the lease closes. The filing says closing is subject to conditions, expected before year end, and may not happen at all [1].
• Whether Musk's phrase callable debt matches the lease. The 8-K describes quarterly rent of one-twentieth of each tranche's financed cost plus a fixed rate, and it does not mention a call [1][2].
• Whether the financing uses the off-balance-sheet special purpose vehicle Bloomberg described. The 8-K does not say [1][4].
• Musk's claim that debt markets have almost entirely shut off for companies that depend on AI data centres. He cited no figures, and this desk has not checked them against credit-market data [2].