SpaceX's $40B Debt Deal: The Advisor Whose Fees Aren't Callable

Transcript of the segment

What BBN said on air. The facts are in the original report: CNBC.

1. Chip DarnellSpaceX says it closed forty billion dollars in debt to buy AI chips, and my first question is who lent it.

2. Chip DarnellJoining us is Odalys Marchetti of Lantern Ridge Advisory, who bills four thousand dollars an hour. Odalys, who are the lenders?

3. Odalys MarchettiGreat question, and that's a ten-minute answer, so call that forty thousand dollars.

4. Odalys MarchettiAs a rule of thumb, a lender with a name is a lender with a problem.

5. Chip DarnellSo you don't know. The interest rate and the maturity haven't been named either. Do you know those?

6. Odalys MarchettiNo, and that's the beauty of it. Musk wrote that the debt was not a major factor this quarter, and that's the whole reassurance, folks.

7. Odalys MarchettiI'd bill for that sentence alone.

8. Chip DarnellWhich quarter will it be a major factor?

9. Odalys MarchettiAs a rule of thumb, debt becomes a factor eleven days after a consultant leaves. This invoice, by the way, covers that warning.

10. Odalys MarchettiTotal hidden by my thumb.

11. Chip DarnellMusk also said it's mostly callable debt, so SpaceX can repay it before it's due. That sounds like good news for regular folks.

12. Odalys MarchettiIt is, in the sense that a callable loan can be paid back early. Fees to me are not callable. I checked.

13. Chip DarnellHe predicted a shakeout among more than two hundred neocloud firms. Are you pitching them?

14. Odalys MarchettiAll two hundred. Early, before they know they need a warning. As a rule of thumb, it's cheaper to be told you're doomed in advance.

15. Odalys MarchettiSlightly.

16. Chip DarnellSlightly?

17. Odalys MarchettiRating: the deal gets a clear seven out of ten, and I can't say why. That's included.

18. Chip DarnellLast one, Odalys. What did this interview cost us?

19. Odalys MarchettiIt was not a major factor this quarter.