Apollo, xAI near $3.4 billion deal to fund AI chips: Report

Apollo Global Management is close ​to finalising a roughly $3.4 billion ‌loan to ​an investment vehicle that plans to buy Nvidia chips and lease them to Elon Musk’s xAI, The Information reported on Monday, citing a person ​familiar with the matter.

Less ⁠than a week ago, Musk announced that SpaceX acquired the artificial ​intelligence company ⁠he also leads in a deal that values the rocket and satellite company ‌at $1 trillion and the AI ‌outfit at $250 billion.

Big tech companies are expected ‍to spend more than $600 billion this year to buy ‍advanced chips and build out massive data centres needed to deploy and train AI systems.

The investment could be finalised as soon as this week and Valor ⁠Equity Partners, a longtime investor in Musk’s ​companies, is arranging the deal, the ⁠report said.

SpaceX, Apollo and xAI did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.