GPU leasing
Use GPU servers for about 20% down. Return them at the end, own them for $1, or sell the ones you have and lease them back.
What a GPU lease is
A lessor buys the servers you pick and owns them. You pay a fixed monthly amount for 24-36 months, usually matched to your customer contract, and run the servers as if they were yours. The more the lessor expects them to be worth when they come back, the less you pay each month.
Renting from a cloud is different. No hardware and no term: you pay per GPU-hour, and the cloud owns and runs the servers.
Three ways to write a GPU lease
The difference is who carries the servers' value at the end.
| FMV (operating) lease | $1 buyout (finance) lease | Residual guarantee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly payment | Lowest | Highest: pays off the full cost | In between |
| At the end | Return, extend, or buy at fair market value | You own the servers for $1 | Buy at the agreed price, or cover the shortfall if they sell for less |
| Residual risk | The lessor's | Yours | Yours, up to the agreed value |
| Fits when | You won't want these GPUs in 3 years | You want to own them, and can carry the payment | You want a lower payment and a set price to keep them |
A residual guarantee is the server version of a TRAC lease, which U.S. tax law reserves for vehicles (26 U.S.C. 7701(h)).
Lease rate factors
Lessors quote a lease rate factor: the monthly payment per dollar of equipment cost. Same down payment and rate in every row; only the value at the end moves it.
| Structure | 24 months | 36 months | 48 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 buyout | 0.0393 | 0.0285 | 0.0232 |
| FMV lease, B300 | 0.024244% FMV in 2028 | 0.021434% FMV in 2029 | 0.020717% FMV in 2030 |
| FMV lease, B200 | 0.027036% FMV in 2028 | 0.024121% FMV in 2029 | 0.02199% FMV in 2030 |
| FMV lease, H200 | 0.029030% FMV in 2028 | 0.026211% FMV in 2029 | 0.02245% FMV in 2030 |
Illustrative: 20% down, an 18% implied rate, first payment in advance. FMV is the middle of the conservative band in the residual value report for the year the lease ends.
Lease-to-own and sale-leaseback
- Lease-to-own
- A $1 buyout lease: you pay off the full cost and own the servers. On 8 B300 servers at $4.86M over 36 months, it costs $138K a month and $5.96M to own. The FMV lease costs $104K a month, and $6.37M if you buy the servers at the end for $1.65M. Against a loan: GPU lease vs. loan.
- Sale-leaseback
- A lessor buys servers you already own and leases them back. You keep running them, your customer keeps paying, and the cash pays for the next cluster. Lessors price it off what the servers are worth now and at lease end, so it suits recent GPUs under a customer contract. An appraisal gives both sides the same number.
Public GPU lease financings
Most GPU leases are too small to make the news. These were announced or reported.
| Lessee | Lessor or lender | Structure | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | MUFG, Axos, BMO, Wells Fargo, PNC | Equipment leaseEquipment finance facility with $300M accordion | $725M | Sep 10, 2026 |
| Nscale | Dell Financial Services | Vendor financingDell Financial Services framework equipment lease financing (40 payment schedules) | $2.5B | Apr 17, 2026 |
| xAI | Apollo | Sale-leasebackLoan to a second chip-leasing vehicle buying NVIDIA GPUs for lease to xAI | $3.4B | Feb 9, 2026 (reported) |
| xAI | Apollo | Sale-leasebackGPU lease financing: triple-net lease of NVIDIA GB200 GPUs to an xAI subsidiary | $3.5B | Jan 7, 2026 |
| Vultr | Bank of America | Equipment leaseCapital expenditure lease financing | $74M | Jun 23, 2025 |
Company releases, SEC filings and press, linked from each lessee. Every public GPU financing: GPU Financing Tracker.
What lessors check
A lessor owns the servers, so it checks what it would get back as closely as who is paying.
- The residual
- What the servers will be worth at the end: GPU generation, age, and the resale market. Current-generation GPUs get lower factors.
- Your history
- Often 2 years in business and audited financials.
- The return
- How the servers come back: condition, de-installation and shipping. Read this clause before you sign.
Everything a lender asks for too: GPU financing requirements.
Two minutes to find out if you qualify.
- Your financing application link, straight away
- A 20-minute onboarding call
- A straight answer if it’s not a fit for the program
Prefer email? hello@amcompute.com
GPU leasing questions
- Who maintains and insures leased GPU servers?
- You do. GPU leases are usually net leases: you cover maintenance, taxes and insurance on the servers, with the lessor as loss payee.
- Does a bigger down payment lower the FMV buyout?
- No. The down payment lowers the amount financed, and so the monthly payment. The buyout at the end is the servers’ fair market value then.
- Should I pay the hardware deposit myself?
- Check with the lessor first. Lessors usually like to pay the down payment to the vendor themselves, so they hold title to the servers.