On October 24, 2026, SpaceX entered a binding commitment letter to enter a master finance lease with an Apollo-managed entity. SpaceX’s October 26 filing said the lease remained subject to closing conditions. The arrangement covers GPU pods and related equipment, with expected aggregate principal payments of about $40 billion.
What SpaceX committed to with Apollo
Under the planned structure, an Apollo-managed lessor would acquire the equipment and lease it to SpaceX for data centers SpaceX selects. Apollo and Goldman Sachs led the financing parties. Apollo also said funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, along with capital accounts advised by KKR, made anchor commitments.
The filing described the master lease’s closing as expected before the end of 2026, subject to conditions. That was a forecast made on October 26, not a completed milestone.
What the $40 billion covers
The $40 billion figure is the expected aggregate principal across the lease schedules. Quarterly rent also includes a rate-based amount and certain costs, so the principal figure does not represent the full amount payable under the arrangement.
Each equipment tranche would have its own lease schedule, expected to run about five to five-and-a-quarter years from its start. Rent would be payable quarterly in advance. The general principal component for each payment would equal one-twentieth of that tranche’s financed cost, alongside an amount calculated using a fixed annual rate on the outstanding balance and certain costs.
| Lease term | What SpaceX’s October 26 filing says |
| Structure | A binding commitment letter to enter a master finance lease with an Apollo-managed lessor, subject to closing conditions |
| Expected aggregate principal | About $40 billion across the lease schedules |
| Schedule term | About five to five-and-a-quarter years for each tranche, from its commencement date |
| Rent timing | Quarterly in advance |
| Payment components | Generally one-twentieth of the applicable tranche’s financed cost per payment, plus a rate-based amount and certain costs |
The planned compute and workloads
SpaceX’s filing describes GPU pods and related equipment for data centers it selects. Apollo identified NVIDIA Vera Rubin chips as the intended platform for the terrestrial compute buildout. Apollo said the planned capacity would support Grok for enterprise and consumer users, as well as existing and future cloud-services customers.
Expected equipment timing
In its October 26 filing, SpaceX said equipment-linked lease schedules were expected to begin as GPUs and related equipment arrived in tranches during the first half of 2027.
