SpaceX’s third-quarter filing showed $19.593 billion in capital spending as reports put a proposed $40 billion Nvidia-chip financing plan under renewed pricing talks amid recent credit-market volatility.
Neither the company’s earnings release nor its Sept. 30 Form 10-Q announces the proposal. Bloomberg reported Oct. 23, citing people familiar with the discussions, that market volatility had brought pricing talks for the proposed financing back into focus.
Bloomberg reported that Goldman Sachs was discussing a special-purpose vehicle with investors led by Apollo Global Management. Apollo-backed Atlas SP was slated to manage it, while Pacific Investment Management Co. was weighing participation. The reported structure is intended to fund chip purchases while keeping related liabilities off SpaceX’s balance sheet.
Semafor’s Oct. 22 report put the expected yield near 7.75% for debt secured by the chips, versus about 8.3% for the deal’s lowest-rated portion. Bloomberg said the next day that credit-market swings had led participants to revisit pricing, including an earlier mid-8% range for subordinated debt. Semafor said terms could change before the financing is finalized.
SpaceX’s spending outlook provides context for the reported borrowing plan. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said on the Oct. 20 earnings call that fourth-quarter capital expenditures were expected to reach $35 billion to $40 billion. Johnsen also said SpaceX was discussing “a number of available pools of debt capital” to fund growth and expressed confidence in maintaining investment-grade status.
As of Sept. 30, SpaceX reported $38.006 billion in aggregate principal debt, $51.294 billion in cash and cash equivalents, $38.561 billion in short-term marketable securities and $5 billion available under a credit facility. The company said it believes its liquidity sources and other financing activities will be sufficient to meet anticipated cash needs for at least the next 12 months.
The same filing says three AI infrastructure sale-leasebacks were treated as failed sale-leasebacks that would have been finance leases. SpaceX reported $2.181 billion under “Debt and finance leases, current” and $10.716 billion under “Debt and finance leases, net of current,” and linked the transactions to Valor Equity Partners. Those disclosures do not establish how the proposed chip-financing vehicle would be accounted for.
Semafor reported that the chip-backed tranche was likely to price the following week, while terms could change before finalization.
