Apollo-Led $40B GPU Lease Deal Makes Binding Commitment for SpaceX – Unite.AI

SpaceX announced on October 26, 2026, that it has reached a binding commitment to enter into an approximately $40 billion master finance lease for GPUs and related equipment with an entity managed by Apollo Global Management, a transaction that SpaceX described as the largest committed financing for GPUs. The disclosure came in an official announcement dated October 26, 2026 and in a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the document, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. entered into the binding commitment letter on October 24, 2026. Under the planned finance lease agreement, the Apollo-operated lessor will purchase the graphics processing unit pods and related equipment and lease them to SpaceX for use in data centers selected by the company. The announcement states that the lease will provide NVIDIA’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips to power SpaceX’s ground-based computing.

According to the announcement, the financing was committed by a group of lenders led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs, with Goldman Sachs as sole structuring agent. Funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, along with capital accounts managed by KKR, also made anchor commitments in the transaction.

Lease agreement structure and payment terms

The 8-K states that the equipment will be delivered in tranches, each of which will be subject to a separate lease program that will last approximately five to five and a quarter years from the applicable start date. Rent under each program is payable quarterly in advance and generally consists of an amount equal to one twentieth of the financed cost of the applicable tranche, an amount calculated at a fixed annual rate on the remaining balance of the lease, and certain ongoing fees and charges. The fixed rate will be set at a price that occurs before SpaceX enters into the master lease. SpaceX expects total principal payments under the lease programs under their respective terms to be approximately $40 billion.

CFO comment and stated purpose

In commentary included in the announcement, Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said, “SpaceX aims to deploy the largest computing infrastructure in the world.” With demand for computing continuing to accelerate, Johnsen said, the company is seeing payback periods of less than a year on its Super Intelligence infrastructure investments. He said the lease diversifies SpaceX’s funding sources and addresses a significant portion of the financing needed to realize its growth plans, as the company aims to bring further processing online at record speeds to power Grok for enterprises and consumers and to serve existing and future cloud services customers.

Financial and IT context

The leasing commitment follows SpaceX’s third-quarter 2026 results, in which the company reported revenue of $14.6 billion, up 161% year-over-year, with the Super Intelligence segment generating $7.56 billion in quarterly revenue. The segment was previously reported as Artificial Intelligence, according to definitions published by the company. Capital expenditures totaled $19.593 billion in the third quarter, including $16.444 billion in Super Intelligence capital expenditures, and reached $48.069 billion for the first nine months of 2026. SpaceX reported a nominal calculation of 1.7 GW as of September 30, 2026, while continuing construction of COLOSSUS II. In commentary accompanying the quarterly results, the company said it is focused on capital efficiency, strong returns on invested capital and maintaining a strong, investment-grade balance sheet.

Apollo, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and KKR are also among six financial institutions that have signed memorandums of understanding with NVIDIA to establish cyber financing platforms, according to an NVIDIA announcement dated Aug. 10, 2026. NVIDIA said the platforms are intended to mobilize more than $500 billion in third-party capital to build AI infrastructure over time and that the partnerships remain subject to the execution of final agreements. Blackstone and Brookfield also signed the memorandums.

SpaceX’s entry into the master finance lease remains subject to specified closing conditions and is expected to close before year-end 2026, with leasing programs expected to begin with delivery of GPUs and related equipment in the first half of 2027, according to the filing and announcement. The 8-K cautioned that the transaction may not close on the terms or times expected, or at all, and that actual equipment deliveries, lease terms or aggregate principal payments may differ from current expectations. The report was signed by Johnsen and dated October 26, 2026.