The Meta logo on display at the Viva Technology conference in Paris on June 11. [Reuters]
The Meta logo on display at the Viva Technology conference in Paris on June 11. [Reuters]

Meta, the company behind Facebook, is joining forces with BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, to build a $14 billion AI data center.

Meta announced Tuesday that it would form a joint venture with BlackRock to construct a data center in El Paso, Texas. Funds managed by BlackRock will hold an 80 percent stake in the joint venture, with Meta retaining the remaining 20 percent.

The two companies will share the roughly $14 billion in total costs — covering data center development and infrastructure — in proportion to their respective stakes. Specifically, Meta will contribute land and assets under construction valued at approximately $2.3 billion as an in-kind investment, while BlackRock will provide cash through debt financing.

To align with the 80-20 ownership split, Meta will receive a one-time distribution of about $1 billion.

Meta plans to lease the entire completed data center under a contract renewable in four-year increments, with a maximum term of 20 years.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said building infrastructure for superintelligence is "core to ensuring the benefits of this technology are distributed to everyone." He added that the BlackRock partnership would allow the company to combine its expertise in designing and operating world-class data centers with one of the world's top infrastructure investors, enabling it to "move faster and at greater scale."

The El Paso data center, with a computing capacity of 1 GW, is set to begin full operation in 2028.

Meta's decision to bring in BlackRock capital through a joint venture — rather than owning the data center outright — is seen as a way to ease the financial burden of AI infrastructure investment.

Major technology companies have been issuing tens of billions of dollars in bonds and drawing in outside capital to fund the vast levels of investment required.

Matt Britzman, a senior analyst at British brokerage Hargreaves Lansdown, told Reuters that "Meta doesn't have a large cloud business selling spare capacity to external customers," adding that "questions still remain around the cash flow, future operating costs and return on investment for an investment of this scale."


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