SpaceX’s $40B Chip Debt to Cost 7.75% to 8.3%, Sources Say

SpaceX’s $40 billion debt raise “is being finalized at sharply higher interest rates than when the rocket company last tapped bondholders, a sign of growing jitters in the AI world,” Semafor reported on 22 October 2026. The lowest-rated portion is expected to carry interest rates of about 8.3%, and a safer piece backed by some of SpaceX’s chips is likely to price around 7.75%, according to people familiar with the deal, Semafor said.

That 7.75% is “more than 1 percentage point more than where SpaceX’s current bonds trade, reflecting an AI-loan market that has pulled back sharply over the past few weeks,” Semafor wrote. The deal is being led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs. Goldman and Apollo declined to comment, and pricing could change before the debt is finalised, which is expected sometime next week, according to Semafor.

Business Pill · FINANCIAL CONDITIONS

A short Business Engineer explainer on financial conditions: how the cost and availability of credit change. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about any company or deal in this piece.

What Semafor Reported

Semafor’s report, by Ellen DiMauro and Liz Hoffman, gives these details of the deal:

• The size. A $40 billion debt raise.
• The lowest-rated portion. Expected to carry interest rates of about 8.3%, according to people familiar with the deal.
• The safer piece. Backed by some of SpaceX’s chips and likely to price next week around 7.75%, the people said.
• The comparison. That is “more than 1 percentage point more than where SpaceX’s current bonds trade,” Semafor wrote.
• The banks. The deal is being led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs, which declined to comment.
• The timing. Pricing could change by the time the debt is finalised, which is expected sometime next week.

Semafor also reported that SpaceX’s existing bonds “have weakened in recent days as strong earnings were overshadowed by massive spending plans and concerns about the company’s debt load, plus broader AI fears fueled by CoreWeave’s debt selloff.” Default insurance on the company also widened, Semafor said. It added that President Donald Trump purchased $5 million in SpaceX bonds in August.

What We Reported Before

Our piece on SpaceX’s $40 billion debt covers Reuters’ 6 October report, citing two sources, that SpaceX was in talks with banks and asset managers to raise $40 billion to buy Nvidia artificial intelligence chips, with Apollo expected to lead. At the time, no rate, maturity or collateral had been reported. SpaceX’s 10-Q put total debt and finance leases at $39,512 million on 30 June 2026.

The Table: What AI Borrowers Pay

The table sets Semafor’s reported pricing beside rates and yields from our recent coverage of other AI borrowers.

These are different instruments: stated coupon rates on issued notes, expected pricing on debt not yet finalised, and market yields on traded bonds. They show the range of what AI borrowers pay, and are not a like-for-like comparison.

The Debt Backdrop in Our Coverage

• Our piece on Meta’s interest costs covers its 10-Q: interest expense of $977 million in the third quarter, up from $227 million a year earlier, and May 2026 notes with stated rates of up to 6.45%.
• Our piece on CoreWeave’s debt yield covers CNBC’s 21 October report that CoreWeave’s unsecured debt was “sporting a yield of about 15%.”
• Our piece on CoreWeave’s funding gap covers Bernstein’s estimate, reported by TipRanks, of about $76 billion to finance with outside capital.

The Structural Read

As we read it, the chip-backed piece is the notable structure: Semafor says the safer debt is backed by some of SpaceX’s chips, while our earlier piece reports, citing Reuters, that the $40 billion was being raised to buy Nvidia chips.

As we read it, the pricing sits between the AI borrowers in our recent coverage: above the stated rates of up to 6.45% on Meta’s May 2026 notes, and below the yield of about 15% on CoreWeave’s unsecured debt reported by CNBC. These are different instruments, so the comparison shows a range, not a ranking.

As we read it, the timing matters for the figures: Semafor says pricing could change by the time the debt is finalised, which is expected sometime next week.

Three Implications

FOR SPACEX Semafor reports its existing bonds weakened in recent days and default insurance on the company widened.

FOR THE LENDERS Semafor reports the deal is being led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs, which declined to comment.

FOR OTHER AI BORROWERS Our earlier pieces report Meta’s interest expense rising to $977 million in the third quarter and CoreWeave’s unsecured debt yielding about 15%, according to CNBC.

The Business Engineer Lens

This story maps onto the Business Engineer framework The AI Capex Map.

The framework’s thesis: “the capex race is no longer a corporate spending cycle. It is a sovereign-scale financing problem dressed in tech-company clothing”.

As we read it, SpaceX’s $40 billion raise is one case of that financing question, and Semafor’s pricing shows what lenders are now charging for it. The framework was published in May 2026 and does not discuss this deal.

What Is Not Established

Semafor’s figures come from people familiar with the deal, and the debt has not been finalised; pricing could change. Semafor does not give the size of each piece of the $40 billion or the yield on SpaceX’s current bonds, so the exact step-up cannot be computed beyond Semafor’s “more than 1 percentage point.” SpaceX had not commented in Semafor’s report. Nothing here is investment advice.

The Bottom Line

SpaceX’s $40 billion debt raise is expected to cost about 7.75% on a safer, chip-backed piece and about 8.3% on its lowest-rated portion, according to people familiar with the deal cited by Semafor. Semafor says the safer piece would price more than 1 percentage point above SpaceX’s current bonds, as the AI-loan market has pulled back. Apollo and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal, which is expected to be finalised next week.