SpaceX’s planned $40 billion debt raise is coming together at noticeably higher interest rates than the company paid the last time it borrowed, according to an exclusive report from Semafor on October 22.
What the deal looks like
The financing is being led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs. People familiar with the deal told Semafor that the lowest-rated portion is expected to carry an interest rate of about 8.3%, while a safer tranche backed by some of SpaceX’s chips is likely to price next week at around 7.75%. That’s more than one percentage point above where SpaceX’s current bonds trade. Pricing could still change before the deal is finalized, which is expected sometime next week. Goldman and Apollo declined to comment.
Background
Reports in early October from CNBC, Reuters and the Financial Times said SpaceX was in talks with Apollo and banks to raise roughly $40 billion to buy Nvidia AI chips, with the GPUs likely serving as collateral. Reuters’ sources described a split of about $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in debt. SpaceX had already sold $25 billion in bonds shortly after its June IPO.
Why borrowing got more expensive
Semafor ties the higher cost to a sharp pullback in the AI lending market over the past few weeks, including a selloff in CoreWeave’s debt. SpaceX’s own bonds have weakened in recent days too: its strong third-quarter results were overshadowed by heavy spending plans and questions about its debt load, and the cost of insuring against a SpaceX default has widened. All of this is happening while SpaceX and Tesla study a possible merger.
Why it matters
SpaceX is now as much an AI infrastructure buyer as a rocket and satellite company, and this deal shows lenders asking for more in return for that exposure. The final pricing next week will be a useful read on how much appetite credit markets still have for funding the AI build-out.