MBA Training Finance

Asset life vs debt tenor: SpaceX's $40bn chip deal

MBA Training Finance

Show Notes

Can you fund four-year Nvidia hardware with thirty-year paper and keep an investment-grade rating? SpaceX is trying, with roughly $10bn of bank loans and $30bn of bonds led by Apollo, and the position here is that the structure sells residual value rather than credit. The episode walks through the BBB threshold, the June $25bn deal that drew $90bn of orders then traded near 85 cents with a 2.27 point spread, Michael Burry's $176bn depreciation claim, and the Bank of England's circular arrangements warning.

You leave with a three-part test, life, lock and residual, plus the CoreWeave, Meta and Blue Owl precedents, an asset-life ladder to build, and the purchase obligations footnote to check.

0:00 Asset life versus debt tenor mismatch 1:09 Why $10bn loans plus $30bn bonds 2:32 Three claims about chip collateral tested 4:51 Life, lock, residual: the CFO test 6:13 The refinancing bet, costed 7:07 Mid-cap version: covenants and purchase obligations

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