This article first appeared on GuruFocus .
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ( NASDAQ:SPCX ) fell 6.78% as of 9:50 a.m. ET, after Bloomberg reported that Goldman Sachs ( NYSE:GS ) and Apollo Global Management ( NYSE:APO ) are in talks with investors to start selling portions of a roughly $40 billion chip financing deal for SpaceX. In some cases, investors are being asked to buy slices of as much as $500 million before formal syndication begins, people familiar with the matter said.
The pitch comes as the cost of insuring SpaceX's debt climbs. Credit-default swaps on the company rose about 12 basis points to 282 basis points on Thursday, near Friday's record of 284 and up from 150 basis points two months ago, according to ICE Data Services. Investors agreed to the package before it priced, leaving lenders exposed to market risk as sentiment toward the AI trade weakened.
Under the structure, a special purpose vehicle managed by Apollo-backed Atlas SP will buy Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) chips and issue the debt, keeping it off SpaceX's balance sheet. SpaceX will rent the chips under a five-year agreement, and cannot use force majeure clauses to pause payments. The debt includes an $8.3 billion senior secured loan led by Goldman and bond tranches for asset managers. Together with a $7 billion lease prepayment, it will fund about $47.3 billion of Nvidia's Rubin chips, due in the first half of 2027.
