SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk, is going through a period of contrasts. While strengthening its position in the growing infrastructure market for artificial intelligence (AI) with deals valued at billions of dollars, it is also facing strong financial pressure and has decided to resort to a debt issue for the first time to refinance itself.
The company announced a new contract with the startup Reflection AI, through which the latter will pay US$150 million monthly from July 2026 to 2029 for access to computing capacity based on Nvidia GB300 chips installed in the Colossus 1 data center, in Memphis, Tennessee.
The agreement has a potential value of up to US$6.3 billion, although both companies may cancel it with 90 days’ prior notice once the first three months of validity have elapsed.
This is the third large-scale contract that SpaceX has signed in just two months to rent processing infrastructure for the training and operation of advanced artificial intelligence models.
Before Reflection AI, the company had already closed deals with Anthropic and Google. In the case of Anthropic, payments amount to US$1.25 billion per month, while Google will disburse US$920 million per month. Both agreements will extend until 2029 and include similar cancellation clauses.
New source of income
The agreements reflect how SpaceX diversifies its businesses beyond space launches and satellite services. The demand for computational capacity for artificial intelligence has skyrocketed in recent years, driven by the development of increasingly complex and demanding models in technological resources.
Reflection AI, founded in 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers, focuses on open source technologies and has not yet launched a commercial model. However, the company has already reached a private valuation close to US$25 billion, according to specialized media.
The startup stated that it seeks to promote “American open intelligence” and highlighted that more and more governments and companies are evaluating the risks of relying exclusively on closed AI models.
Why is SpaceX falling on the stock market?
Despite these announcements, investors reacted negatively. SpaceX shares fell 16.4% at the close of trading on Monday, extending losses accumulated over the previous week.
The decline came amid a broader correction in the technology sector. Companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta also closed with losses, affected by investor caution regarding upcoming inflation data in the United States and expectations about the decisions of the Federal Reserve (Fed).
However, after the close of the regular session, SpaceX shares showed a recovery of close to 1% in subsequent trading.
First bond issue
In parallel, the company announced its first issuance of corporate bonds, an operation aimed at refinancing debt and strengthening its financial structure.
The placement will consist of senior unsecured bonds aimed at qualified institutional investors. This type of instrument allows companies to obtain financing through market loans, with the commitment to return the capital plus interest on a certain date.
The decision to issue debt comes as SpaceX seeks to finance its expansion in strategic areas such as artificial intelligence and large-scale technology infrastructure.
For investors, the bond issue represents a sign that the company is taking advantage of new sources of financing to sustain its growth, although it also demonstrates the need to carefully manage its financial commitments in an environment of greater economic volatility.
Market attentive to the US economy
SpaceX’s performance also comes against a backdrop of uncertainty for Wall Street. Markets await the publication of the consumer price index for May, a key data to anticipate the next movements of the Federal Reserve regarding interest rates.
Last week, the Fed decided to keep interest rates in a range between 3.5% and 3.75%, as investors continue to evaluate the impact of inflation and economic growth on technology companies.
In this scenario, SpaceX is trying to consolidate a new line of business based on the rental of infrastructure for artificial intelligence, a bet that could become one of the company’s most important growth drivers in the coming years.