Meta and BlackRock will invest $14 billion in the construction of an AI data center
The American companies Meta Platforms and BlackRock are investing approximately $14 billion in the construction of a new data center complex in Texas. Its total capacity will be 1 gigawatt.
The project will be part of a large-scale investment in the development of infrastructure for artificial intelligence. The new data center is intended to meet the growing demand for computing power required to run modern AI systems.
The facility in El Paso is scheduled to launch in 2028, and Meta will be its first and only tenant. Funds managed by BlackRock will own 80% of the joint venture, while Meta will retain 20%.
The $14 billion development cost does not include the cost of the cutting-edge chips required to run AI models. In general, building a 1-GW data center typically costs $35–50 billion.
As part of the deal, Meta will contribute land and other assets valued at approximately $2.3 billion to the joint venture and will receive a one-time payment of $1 billion. The company will enter into a four-year lease agreement for the facility, with an option to extend.
BlackRock will contribute approximately $4.9 billion in cash. Part of this amount was financed through the issuance of $12.5 billion in bonds. The bond sale was met with weaker-than-expected investor demand, forcing investment-grade bonds to offer yields close to those of high-risk “junk” bonds.
The project is part of the Meta Compute initiative, which involves building out AI infrastructure and selling access to excess computing power.
The joint venture with BlackRock will allow the company to move faster and at a larger scale, said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Earlier, the company raised its annual capital expenditure forecast to $125–145 billion due to investments in AI and rising component prices.
This was reported citing data from Bloomberg.
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