Musk: "SpaceX Raises 53 Trillion Won to Buy AI Chips"

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said SpaceX has completed a $40 billion debt financing (approximately 53 trillion won) to purchase AI chips for the space company. He also predicted that many emerging cloud companies would fall by the wayside or consolidate as financing for AI infrastructure investment becomes more difficult.

AP Yonhap News

On October 25 local time, Musk said on X, his social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that SpaceX had completed $40 billion in debt financing to purchase graphics processing units (GPUs).

Musk explained that SpaceX was able to raise such a large amount because it has secured an investment-grade credit rating and generates stable revenue from its Starlink satellite internet service and space launch business.

He said the funds raised would be used mainly to purchase GPUs scheduled for delivery in the first and second quarters of 2027. He added that most of the debt can be repaid early and would not have a significant impact on the company's fourth-quarter 2026 results.

The Financial Times (FT) reported on October 7 that SpaceX was pursuing $40 billion in financing, led by Apollo Global Management, to purchase AI chips from Nvidia. At the time, the plan was reportedly made up of about $10 billion in bank loans and approximately $30 billion in investment-grade debt. Asset manager PIMCO was also mentioned as one of the institutions in discussions to provide financing.

Musk offered a pessimistic outlook on financing conditions across the AI industry. He claimed that in recent weeks, bond-market financing had effectively dried up for companies that had not secured significant revenue beyond their AI data center businesses.

In particular, he predicted that so-called "neocloud" companies, which provide cloud infrastructure specialized for AI computing, would face large-scale restructuring.

Musk referred to more than 200 neocloud companies and claimed that most would be pushed out of the market or absorbed by other companies. He added that some would survive, but not many. He said financing conditions were diverging sharply between companies with stable revenue bases and strong credit ratings and those without them, as building AI infrastructure requires enormous sums of money.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.