Meta and BlackRock launch a $14 billion AI campus in Texas

On July 28, Meta and BlackRock announced the creation of a joint venture to develop and operate a data center campus in El Paso, Texas, with a total cost of about $14 billion. The project involves building a one-gigawatt facility that Meta will use to train its future AI models and support its services, including assistants and smart glasses. BlackRock will hold an 80% stake in the joint venture, while Meta will hold the remaining 20%. Meta is contributing land and construction assets valued at around $2.3 billion, while BlackRock will invest nearly $4.9 billion in capital, with the financing supplemented by $12.5 billion in debt. The construction is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs, and once the project is completed, there will be about 300 permanent positions. Meta will be the sole tenant of the campus under long-term leases. The project is part of Meta's Compute strategy and, according to Mark Zuckerberg, will enable the company to move faster and scale bigger by combining its data center design expertise with BlackRock's infrastructure investment experience. For BlackRock, the deal strengthens its strategy of investing in digital and energy infrastructure following its acquisitions of Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners.