Meta and BlackRock announce $14 billion joint venture to build major AI data center campus in El Paso, Texas, signaling Wall Street co-investment in AI infrastructure.
Meta and BlackRock have announced a $14 billion partnership to build a data center campus in El Paso, Texas, signaling a major shift as traditional finance increasingly muscles into AI infrastructure development. BlackRock's managed funds are taking an 80% ownership stake, with Meta retaining 20%.
The capital structure reflects a strategic financing approach. BlackRock is contributing roughly $4.9 billion in cash equity and leading approximately $12.5 billion in debt financing. Meta's contribution consists of land and existing assets valued at around $2.3 billion. Under the deal's terms, Meta will also receive a $1 billion distribution. Rather than owning the facility, Meta will lease computing capacity from the campus.
The facility is designed to deliver 1 gigawatt of computing capacity and is expected to become operational in 2028. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are advising Meta on the transaction.
This arrangement builds on Meta's previous structured deal with private-credit firm Blue Owl for a data center project in Louisiana. The El Paso campus also aligns with a commitment Meta made in March 2026, when the company announced over $10 billion in planned investment in the Texas border city.
For Meta, the financing structure addresses a fundamental challenge: the company has committed to spending $600 billion on data centers by 2028. By offloading ownership to partners like BlackRock while retaining computing access through leases, Meta can deploy capital more efficiently across its AI buildout without placing excessive strain on its balance sheet.
The AI infrastructure buildout is intensifying competition for grid resources. A single data center campus consuming 1 gigawatt represents capacity unavailable to other consumers, including Bitcoin miners competing for the same electricity on the Texas ERCOT grid—the deregulated power market where crypto miners have increasingly concentrated operations.
BlackRock has emerged as one of the most aggressive traditional finance participants in the emerging crypto economy, from its BUIDL fund for tokenized treasuries to its spot Bitcoin ETF.