BlackRock Will Own 80% Of Meta's Massive New AI Data Center In El Paso

Jul 28, 2026 08:53 PM - 2 hours ago 2

Topline

BlackRock is group to return an 80% ownership liking successful 1 of the biggest artificial intelligence information halfway campuses successful the country—Meta's $14 billion, 1 gigawatt task successful El Paso—in 1 of the clearest signs yet that Wall Street is becoming a awesome financier of the AI title and signaling a caller exemplary for financing the accompanying infrastructure boom.

A position of Meta's information halfway successful Ireland.

PA Images via Getty Images

Key Facts

Meta and BlackRock connected Tuesday announced they were partnering to create and run the new, 1,000-acre information halfway field successful Texas that has been nether building for much than six months and will go 1 of the country’s largest AI infrastructure projects.

The statement says Meta will lend onshore and in-progress building assets worthy astir $2.3 cardinal and BlackRock will make a rate publication of astir $4.9 billion.

Meta will besides person a $1 cardinal distribution to align ownership and, successful the end, will ain only astir 20% of the task while BlackRock-managed costs return an 80% ownership stake.

The woody represents a pioneering financing strategy that could reshape really Big Tech pays for progressively costly AI infrastructure, the measure for which has spooked investors arsenic superior expenditure forecasts astatine companies for illustration Meta, Alphabet and different giants proceed to grow.

What to watch for

Meta will study its 2nd 4th net aft the doorbell connected Wednesday. The company's shares dropped astir 10%, erasing astir $175 cardinal from its marketplace capitalization successful a azygous day, aft a first 4th net study included a higher 2026 superior expenditure forecast than antecedently estimated. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li attributed the summation to higher memory-chip pricing and further information halfway costs tied to AI infrastructure.

Investment Firms Are Backing Big Tech's AI Dreams

Meta has gone each successful connected utilizing financial firms to backmost its information centers. The institution successful October announced a similar deal pinch Blue Owl Capital to develop, ain and finance the record-breaking Hyperion AI information halfway field successful Richland Parish, Louisiana. The woody created a special-purpose holding institution called Beignet Investor to rumor astir $27 cardinal successful task bonds to money construction, and Blue Owl costs straight invested astir $3 cardinal successful speech for an 80% ownership liking successful the project. Other tech companies are besides partnering pinch financial firms, but successful different ways. OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX past twelvemonth formed a caller company, Stargate LLC, to create AI information centers crossed the U.S., pinch an first extremity of investing $100 cardinal and yet up to $500 billion. Unlike the Meta projects however, the tech companies and investors are co-owners of the platform. Google and Blackstone created a caller joint venture to build a caller AI-focused unreality business; Microsoft, BlackRock and state-backed Abu Dhabi finance patient MGX created a new money structure that allows organization investors to finance caller AI infrastructure; and Broadcom precocious collaborated pinch Apollo and Blackstone to create an AI infrastructure platform targeting much than 20 gigawatts of AI compute deployments.

BIG NUMBER

More than 700. That’s really galore information centers are actively nether building crossed 38 U.S. states, according to Texas-based power marketplace consulting institution Electric Choice. Existing information centers are overwhelmingly concentrated successful Virginia and Texas.