Overview
- Meta and funds managed by BlackRock announced Tuesday an 80%/20% joint venture to develop a roughly $14 billion, 1‑gigawatt data center campus in El Paso that Meta will lease in full.
- At financial close Meta will contribute about $2.3 billion of land and construction‑in‑progress, BlackRock will provide roughly $4.9 billion in cash, Meta will receive a one‑time distribution near $1 billion, and BlackRock plans about $12.5 billion of debt financing.
- Meta will be the campus’ initial sole tenant under leases with a four‑year base term and options extending potential occupancy to 20 years, and the company has provided residual‑value guarantees with an aggregate threshold of about $13 billion to support project credit.
- Debt tied to the venture has priced at noticeably higher yields than prior Meta project bonds, with a recent Sopaipilla offering near 7.5%, signaling investor fatigue and higher cost of capital for large AI data‑center financings.
- Meta says the campus will support roughly 4,000 peak construction jobs and about 300 permanent roles, and the deal highlights a wider shift by hyperscalers to accelerate AI buildouts by moving financing and long‑term asset risk onto investors and project entities, which raises local fiscal and grid capacity questions.