- SpaceX plans to raise at least $20 billion through its first investment-grade bond sale.
- Most of the bond proceeds will go toward refinancing the loan used to finance the xAI acquisition in February.
- This move comes after SpaceX’s record $75 billion IPO, although its shares have since dropped.
SpaceX is heading back to Wall Street for another $20 billion, less than two weeks after its record-setting IPO on June 12.
According to Bloomberg, bankers may start reaching out to investors as early as June 22 to measure interest in the company’s first investment-grade dollar bond. The total amount could still change before the deal is finalised.
Most of the funds will be used for a straightforward purpose: refinancing a $20 billion bridge loan that comes due in September 2027. SpaceX took out this loan to help pay for its February acquisition of Elon Musk’s xAI, and it now accounts for most of the company’s $29.1 billion in long-term debt as of March 31.
The same five banks that arranged the bridge loan, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, are expected to lead the bond sale as well.
SpaceX’s valuation is still being tested
SpaceX set its IPO price at $135 per share, raising $75 billion and briefly pushing its valuation above $2 trillion. Returning to the bond market so soon shows how much cash the company expects to spend on AI infrastructure, in addition to its rocket and satellite businesses. This commitment grew further with its $60 billion acquisition of the coding startup Cursor.
Investors remain cautious: shares dropped about 8% over two sessions as the market questioned whether the post-IPO price could hold up against this level of spending. The filing also revealed that SpaceX owns 18,712 Bitcoin, worth about $1.29 billion, which briefly pushed its futures market valuation toward $3 trillion.
For now, credit rating agencies are not concerned. This week, Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P all gave SpaceX investment-grade ratings: Baa1, BBB+, and BBB, respectively.
SpaceX is joining a wave of AI debt deals
Many Big Tech companies are changing how they finance AI projects. In 2025 alone, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle borrowed a combined $93 billion in the US investment-grade bond market. JPMorgan expects about $300 billion a year in AI and data centre-related debt deals over the next five years. The approach is clear: borrow now, build now, and think about returns later.
Looking at individual deals shows how quickly things are moving. Oracle raised $18 billion in September. Meta followed in October with a $30 billion sale, which was the largest investment-grade bond deal not linked to an acquisition. Alphabet and Amazon each raised about $15 billion to $17.5 billion in November. Microsoft is the only major hyperscaler that has not tapped debt markets so far, underscoring how much cash it still generates relative to its competitors.
Not all companies get the same borrowing terms. Oracle has more debt compared to its earnings than its competitors, is only two ratings above junk status, and has seen the cost of insuring its debt rise as investors protect themselves. CoreWeave, an AI cloud provider that went public last year, could not access investment-grade markets at all. It raised $3.75 billion in high-yield debt at about 9% interest, which is more than double what SpaceX’s new bonds are expected to cost.
Nvidia is at the other end of the spectrum: its $25 billion raise, the company’s largest debt deal ever, included a 30-year portion, showing lenders believe AI infrastructure demand will last for decades.
SpaceX falls somewhere in the middle, but with some differences. Unlike Meta or Oracle, its bond is primarily for refinancing existing debt. Its credit profile is unusual for an investment-grade company: it combines a rocket and satellite business with an AI lab, holds $1.29 billion in Bitcoin, and is competing for capital with Microsoft and Amazon, even though it only recently went public.
For now, investment-grade ratings suggest the market sees SpaceX as more similar to Meta than to CoreWeave. Whether that view lasts will depend on whether SpaceX’s AI investments start generating revenue before the next bridge loan is due.
