SpaceX is in talks with banks and asset managers to raise US$40 billion for the purchase of Nvidia artificial intelligence chips, two sources familiar with the matter said. The Elon Musk-led company is in talks with asset manager PIMCO for financing, one of the sources told Reuters. SpaceX is looking to raise about US$10 billion in bank loans and US$30 billion in investment-grade debt for the chip order, according to a source, confirming an earlier story by the Financial Times. Apollo is expected to lead the SpaceX deal and help place the debt with a broad range of investors, the Financial Times reported. SpaceX and Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Apollo and PIMCO declined to comment. The sources declined to be identified because the deal is still not public. The proposed funding underscores the enormous capital requirement of the AI boom, as technology companies race to secure advanced processors and build out the computing infrastructure needed to support AI development. Morgan Stanley estimates that AI infrastructure will require US$1.5 trillion in external financing by 2028, even as lenders and investors grow more cautious about funding the industry’s expansion. Shares of the rocket and spacecraft manufacturer were down 2 per cent in early trade, while Nvidia’s stock rose 0.5 per cent. Musk, who took SpaceX public in June in a record US$86 billion IPO, 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 US$500 billion for AI infrastructure projects. --- Reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara, Rashmi Aich and Jan Harvey
