Meta and BlackRock have announced a $14 billion joint venture to build and operate a massive one-gigawatt AI data center in El Paso, Texas in the U.S. The agreement allocates 80 percent controlling stake in the project leaving Meta with the remaining 20 percent stake.
While Meta is famously working on its AI-powered supercomputer ambitions and requires large capaciti data centres, asset management major BlackRock is eyeing strong and stable financial returns from this venture along with carving itself a position in the AI computing sphere. Cementing the ownership split, Meta will be transferring $2.3 billion in land and existing construction assets into the venture in return for $1 billion in cash distribution, the announcement said. BlackRock, meanwhile, will be pouring in $4.9 billion in cash, supported by a $12.5 billion project-level debt financing package.
For Meta, the financial structure excuses it from shelling out a multibillion-dollar payout to keep this data centre up and running, while having a say in the facility’s development and using it as a sole tenant. “The data center will have one gigawatt of compute capacity and will play an essential role in bringing Meta’s AI technologies to life, accelerating progress on AI models and supporting enhancements to the core business,” stated the announcement.
Once complete, the data centre is estimated to hire for 300 operational roles. The venture expects to begin bringing this capacity online in 2028.
Lease agreements for Meta to use the entire facility will be created. The initiatial term for the lease will be four years, subject to an extension. A potential 20-year lease flexibility will be made available to Meta.
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as financial advisors toMeta while Carles River Associates, Turner & Townsend, and Marsh served as technical advisors to BlackRock.
This is the second major AI data center deal that Meta has struck with an industry giant in recent months.
Earlier in June, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company partnered India’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for a 168 megawatts AI-focussed data centre. Even there, Meta managed to cut its own costs as Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani agreed to design, construcy, and manage the property with utilities, power supply, and network connectivity.
The social networking giant, afterall, is working on its artificial superintelligence (ASI) project that is intended to perform tasks and take decisions more efficiently than humans and existing AI systems.
Zuckerberg envisions a cluster of AI data centres through the late 2020s scaling to “hundreds of gigawatts or more”.
Project Prometheus, the first of Meta’s AI data centres with over 1GW capacity, is likely to go live within this year in New Albany, Ohio. Louisiana, Indiana, and Oklahoma are among other locations where Meta is constructing these data centres.
Meta is estimated to spend up to $145 billion on capital expenditures this year, with majority roped-in for the expansions on its AI infrastructure and data center upgrades. In 2025, the projected investment from Meta towards AI was around $72 billion.