Private credit ·
Apollo says its AI-related lending is focused on power and chips, with chip financings that fully amortize, assume no residual value and carry investment-grade guarantees
On Apollo's Nov. 3 third-quarter call, President Jim Zelter said origination was a record $114 billion, of which $98 billion was debt and more than 80% investment grade, and that its AI-related origination has been "predominantly focused" on power and chips. He said financing that "fully amortizes over a fixed period, assumes no residual value, and is further supported by guarantees from IG counterparties" is what Apollo will lend against for chips, and cited the $40 billion GPU financing for SpaceX. CEO Marc Rowan described chip financings with 20% paydown over five years and an IG guarantee, and said Apollo moved to estimated daily value for its entire credit business on Sept. 30 and plans about $350 million of expenses over 24 months on data and systems.
Why it matters for deal teams: Read next to Ares stepping back from GPU collateral, this is the other underwriting answer: structure out residual-value risk with amortization and guarantees, so lenders taking chip exposure still need to track paydown and guarantor credit against equipment value.
Source: Apollo Global Management Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Quartr via Yahoo Finance); PEI Private Credit (headline and preview) ↗ · more ↗