Meta and BlackRock partner on a 14 billion dollar Texas data center

A gigawatt of compute capacity requires a structural shift in how technology giants manage their balance sheets. In El Paso, Texas, Meta Platforms has transitioned from sole owner to minority partner, announcing a venture with BlackRock to develop a $14 billion data center campus. The arrangement sees BlackRock-managed funds taking an 80% ownership stake, backed by $12.5 billion in debt, while Meta retains 20% and a $1 billion distribution to align its ownership.

The decision reflects the capital intensity of the current infrastructure cycle. By contributing $2.3 billion in land and in-progress construction assets against BlackRock’s $4.9 billion cash injection, Meta secures the necessary hardware environment through lease agreements rather than direct capital expenditure. This off-balance-sheet approach arrives as investors increasingly scrutinize the immediate returns on artificial intelligence spending, particularly for firms that do not operate a primary cloud-provider model for external customers.

Construction is already underway at the El Paso site, with operations expected to begin in 2028. The facility is a cornerstone of Meta’s broader $600 billion infrastructure roadmap, which includes similar gigawatt-scale projects in Louisiana and across the United States. As the industry moves toward these unprecedented power requirements, the project serves as a template for how large-scale compute will be financed: not through corporate cash reserves alone, but through the mobilization of institutional private equity and complex debt structures.