Oct 6 (Reuters) - SpaceX plans to raise $40 billion, led by asset manager Apollo Global Management, for purchasing Nvidia AI chips, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Elon Musk-led company is looking to raise about $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt for the chip order, the report said.
The proposed funding underscores the enormous capital requirement of the AI boom, as tech companies race to secure advanced processors
and build out the computing infrastructure needed to support AI development.
Morgan Stanley estimates AI infrastructure will require $1.5 trillion in external financing by 2028, even as lenders and investors grow more cautious about funding the industry's expansion.
Apollo is expected to lead the SpaceX deal and help place the debt with a broad range of investors, with bond fund Pimco among a small group of lenders in talks to provide financing, the newspaper reported, adding that the transaction is expected to close in 2027.
Shares of the rocket and spacecraft manufacturer fell 1% in extended trading after the report, while Nvidia's stock rose 0.5%.
While SpaceX, Apollo and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment, Pimco declined to comment.
Musk, who took SpaceX public in June in a record $86 billion IPO, had said last month that xAI's Colossus 2 data center could more than double the number of Nvidia chips it uses by December.
The company plans to use Nvidia hardware exclusively to build its data centers, Musk said.
Nvidia, the dominant supplier of AI processors, in August partnered with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR on financing platforms intended to mobilize more than $500 billion for AI infrastructure projects.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara and Rashmi Aich)
