Wall Street Journal / TIKR (Oct 8–13, 2026) · 2026-10-13
Oracle in Talks with Apollo and Goldman Sachs on Off-Balance-Sheet AI Chip Financing as Debt Tops $169 Billion
Oracle is attempting to route its next wave of NVIDIA chip purchases through a separately-funded SPV so the debt lands off its balance sheet — a direct response to its 8.45% secondary market yield, $169B in total debt, and negative free cash flow of $28.7B over the last four quarters. The structure (investors buy chips, lease back to Oracle) would shield its Baa2/BBB-negative ratings from further deterioration, but it signals the company can no longer absorb capex on its own balance sheet. If talks fail or pricing is punitive, a rating downgrade to sub-investment-grade becomes a live risk before its Dec 14 earnings.
Financial Times / Wall Street Journal / GlobalDataCenterHub (Oct 7–14, 2026) · 2026-10-14
SpaceX Seeking ~$40 Billion Debt Package for NVIDIA Chips — $10B Bank Loans + $30B Investment-Grade Bonds, Apollo to Lead
SpaceX's proposed $40B financing — the largest single AI chip debt package yet by a non-hyperscaler — would combine bank loans and public investment-grade bonds with Apollo as lead arranger and PIMCO among buyers. SpaceX bonds already yield 7.67–7.84% in secondary markets, the second-highest after Oracle. The deal is expected to close in 2027, but its pricing will set a critical market benchmark for BBB-rated AI infrastructure borrowers. If cut or widened, it would pressure Oracle's parallel financing talks and signal credit-market saturation.
Benzinga / TradingView Bond Screener (Oct 5–8, 2026) · 2026-10-08
121 AI-Capex Bonds Now Yield Above 6%; Oracle and SpaceX Alone Exceed 7.5% as 30-Year Treasury Hits 5.63%
A TradingView screen of U.S.-listed AI-capex issuer bonds as of Oct 5 shows 121 bonds yielding above 6%, with Oracle's 40-year paper priced at only 81.70 cents (YTM 8.45%) and SpaceX 2046s at 87.60 cents (YTM 7.84%) — both deeply distressed relative to par. The 30-year risk-free rate at 5.63% (up ~39 bps in a month) is the mechanical driver, but Oracle's 71.6% debt-to-equity ratio and $169B total debt stack mean its spread widening is also credit-specific. This secondary-market stress directly raises new-issue concessions for any forthcoming Oracle or SpaceX primary deals.