SpaceX secures $40 billion debt to buy Nvidia AI chips, Musk says

The debt deal

Elon Musk said on Sunday, 25 October, that SpaceX has closed a $40 billion debt financing to buy the graphics processors behind its artificial intelligence push. Writing on X, he said the money is mainly callable debt tied to GPU purchases, with the chips due to arrive in the first and second quarters of 2027. He did not disclose the maturity or the interest rate of the debt. Musk credited the company's strong credit rating, together with revenue from its Starlink satellite internet service and its rocket launch business, for securing the credit. He also said the financing is not a material factor for the current quarter. The chips in question are Nvidia processors.

Revenue and capital spending

SpaceX's revenue in the third quarter rose 161% year on year to $14.58 billion, and the group reported its first quarterly net profit. That profit came mainly from leasing data centre capacity to outside customers, Anthropic among them, a shift the company made in the spring. Capital expenditure nearly tripled to $19.6 billion in the same quarter. On Tuesday, 20 October, when it presented those results, SpaceX said it intends to invest between $35 billion and $40 billion in the fourth quarter. The group merged with xAI earlier this year. The quarter is the strongest sign yet that its AI investment is turning into sales, even as spending on computing infrastructure stays very high.

Revenue14.58

Capital expenditure19.6

Revenue

14.58 USD billion

Capital expenditure

19.6 USD billion

Data from the article text

Chips, data centres and Tesla

Terafab, a joint venture between SpaceX and the carmaker Tesla in Austin, Texas, is expected to produce its first test chip in May or June 2027, with mass production targeted for the third quarter of 2028. SpaceX is also continuing to build out its cloud infrastructure, mainly by expanding the Colossus II data centre on the border between Mississippi and Tennessee. In early October, talks with banks and asset managers over raising $40 billion for Nvidia chips were reported. Before its stock market listing, SpaceX had already named the making of its own graphics processors among its key investment items in its filings, flagging large spending plans for AI and other technologies to potential investors. Musk is also reported to want to absorb Tesla, the other large company he leads, which would turn SpaceX into a conglomerate.

Timeline of the plans

The dates in the reports run from talks in early October 2026 to a planned mass production in the third quarter of 2028. Exact days appear only for the 20 October results and the 25 October announcement, while the chip milestones are given as quarters or months. The timeline below sets these beats side by side.

The sources give no maturity date for the debt, so the repayment schedule remains unknown.