Tesla Lines Up $30 Billion to Borrow With Spending on Rise

(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. has lined up $30 billion of new loans and credit lines, as the electric-car maker dials up investments in artificial intelligence and robotics.

The company said it has entered three credit agreements, including a $20 billion term loan that it can draw on later, an $8 billion line of credit for five years, and a $2 billion line of credit for about one year. The company doesn't currently plan to draw on any of the facilities this year, it said in a filing.

The facilities replace a previous $5 billion of line of credit that was set to mature in January 2028. Citigroup is administrative agent for the new delayed-draw term loan, and Wells Fargo & Co. is administrative agent for the credit lines.

Tesla is significantly increasing capital spending to advance Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk's push to transform the maker of electric vehicles into a leader in humanoid robots and artificial intelligence. The company plans to spend more than $25 billion this year to expand its factory operations and its fleet of autonomous Cybercab robotaxis, and plans to spend even more in the future.

"We should be spending on capex as fast as we can — spend as fast as we can without it being too wasteful," Musk said on the company's July earnings call.

Musk has also hinted at the possibility of combining Tesla with SpaceX, the AI and rocket firm that he is also CEO of. The two companies cooperate, for example on a Terafab project that will eventually manufacture chips for robotics, AI and space data centers.

Earlier this month during an appearance at a conference, Musk was asked why the companies are separate.

"Great question," he responded. "Who could imagine what action one might take when there's so much close collaboration in so many areas?"

Under it new credit lines, Tesla has the option to increase the commitments by as much as $4 billion, potentially increasing the facilities to $14 billion total. Loans under the five-year line of credit can be denominated in US dollars, pounds sterling, or euros, while those under the shorter-term line are denominated in US dollars.

(Updates with background about Tesla and SpaceX in paragraphs six through eight and detail about credit lines in last paragraph)