SpaceX shares drop as banks seek demand for AI-linked debt

Market move

According to Yahoo Finance, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which trades under the ticker SPCX, fell 6.78% by 9:50 a.m. ET. The drop came after Bloomberg reported that Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global Management were talking with investors about selling portions of a large chip-financing package tied to SpaceX.

Investor demand and deal size

Yahoo Finance says the banks are trying to gauge demand for slices of the financing before formal syndication begins. People familiar with the matter said some investors were being asked to consider pieces worth as much as $500 million. The reported package is about $40 billion in size.

Debt pricing and market pressure

The article says the pitch comes while the cost of insuring SpaceX’s debt is rising. Credit-default swaps increased by about 12 basis points to 282 basis points on Thursday, close to Friday’s record of 284, and above 150 basis points two months earlier, according to ICE Data Services. Yahoo Finance reports that investors had already agreed to the package before it was priced, which left lenders exposed to market risk as sentiment toward the AI trade weakened.

Financing structure

According to Yahoo Finance, the deal is designed so that a special-purpose vehicle managed by Apollo-backed Atlas SP will buy Nvidia chips and issue the debt, keeping the borrowing off SpaceX’s balance sheet. SpaceX will lease the chips for five years, and the article says it cannot use force majeure clauses to stop payments.

Funding and chip delivery

Yahoo Finance reports that the financing includes an $8.3 billion senior secured loan led by Goldman Sachs, along with bond tranches for asset managers. Paired with a $7 billion lease prepayment, the structure will fund about $47.3 billion of Nvidia’s Rubin chips, which are due in the first half of 2027.