BlackRock and Meta just pulled off one of the most ambitious infrastructure financing deals in recent memory. The world’s largest asset manager raised between $12.3 billion and $12.5 billion through a single bond issuance to fund an 80% stake in Meta’s sprawling data center campus in El Paso, Texas. The total development price tag: roughly $14 billion.
How the deal works
The joint venture gives BlackRock 80% ownership of the data center campus, with Meta retaining the remaining 20%. Meta plans to lease the entire facility starting in 2028, effectively becoming a tenant in a building it helped create.
Meta’s contribution to the partnership includes land and construction already in progress, valued at approximately $2.3 billion. The company also received a $1 billion distribution as part of the arrangement.
The campus is designed to generate approximately 1 gigawatt of capacity.
