Meta and BlackRock Form $14 Billion Venture for El Paso AI Data Center
BlackRock funds will own 80% of the one-gigawatt Texas campus, and Meta will lease it back, keeping most of the cost off its balance sheet.
July 28, 2026 – 1:28 pm
Meta has folded its half-built El Paso data center into a joint venture with BlackRock, formalizing a structure that keeps most of a $14 billion project off its own books.
Under the agreement:
- Funds managed by BlackRock will own 80% of the Texas campus.
- Meta will retain 20% ownership, act as the construction manager, property manager, and sole tenant once the servers come online in 2028.
The venture totals roughly $14 billion in development, with BlackRock contributing about $4.9 billion in cash at financial close. Meta contributes the land and construction-in-progress already invested in the site, valued around $2.3 billion, and receives a one-time $1 billion distribution to align ownership.
The remaining $12.5 billion arrives as debt raised against the project rather than Meta, allowing Meta to book its use of the campus as rent instead of capital spending. This distinction is significant given Meta’s projected $125 billion to $145 billion in capital expenditure for 2026.
The financing has been building for weeks. BlackRock lined up the borrowing for the campus earlier this month, following Meta’s initial package that hinted at a new ceiling for single-site AI financing. The debt figure increased from around $12 billion to $13 billion discussed during those rounds to the current $12.5 billion.
BlackRock is managing the deal through Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners, its arms focused on infrastructure since acquiring Aligned Data Centers for $40 billion. This follows a similar template as previous transactions.
For Meta, this replicates a model used in rural Louisiana, where it kept the majority of its $200 billion Hyperion campus off its balance sheet by handing 80% to an outside investor and leasing the site back. The El Paso structure mirrors this arithmetic almost exactly.
The initial lease runs four years with four extension options, potentially stretching the arrangement to two decades. Meta has stated its plan to invest around $600 billion on U.S. infrastructure through 2028.
While the mechanics offer advantages, they also carry risks. Debt behind these campuses tends to be long-dated while servers depreciate quickly, and leases can run shorter than expected. Nonetheless, the El Paso campus is designed to deliver a gigawatt of compute for Meta’s AI systems and advertising business, with power expected in 2028.
BlackRock reports that approximately 2,300 people are already working on the site, with construction peaking above 4,000 personnel.