SpaceX bond offering sends SPCX shares down 10%

SpaceX on Monday launched its inaugural offering of senior unsecured notes, privately placed to qualified institutional buyers and certain non-U.S. investors. Shares of SPCX fell about 10% that day.

Filings for the offering state proceeds will be used primarily to repay outstanding borrowings under a bridge loan facility, cover related fees and expenses, and for general corporate purposes. The company did not disclose the size, maturity or pricing of the notes. Credit rating firms assigned investment-grade ratings to the planned debt last week.

Regulatory filings show SpaceX carries roughly $29 billion in total debt, including about $20 billion tied to a bridge loan that matures in September 2027. The bridge financing was used to repay obligations at xAI, the artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk and acquired by SpaceX in February. Filings also indicate a substantial portion of remaining long-term debt relates to obligations from certain AI infrastructure assets recorded as failed sale-leaseback transactions.

The senior unsecured notes will rank equally in payment rights with existing and future unsubordinated indebtedness, according to the company. SpaceX completed an initial public offering less than two weeks earlier, raising $85.7 billion, and reported approximately $100.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 19, more than six times its cash balance at the end of March.

Planned capital projects cited by the company include development of space-based data centers, accelerated work on the Starship rocket system, expansion of Terafab in partnership with Tesla, and integration of a $60 billion agreement for Cursor, an autonomous coding agent intended to strengthen the company’s AI capabilities.

A client note from Oppenheimer projected SpaceX may rely heavily on debt markets for future capital needs. The private placement of investment-grade notes is an early use of public debt markets to help finance the company’s long-term AI and space infrastructure projects.