BlackRock is leading a $12 billion debt sale to finance a new Meta data center in El Paso, Texas. This deal is structured to keep most of the construction debt off Meta's balance sheet. BlackRock, through its infrastructure and private-credit arms, owns approximately 80% of the roughly 1-gigawatt project, while Meta holds a 20% stake and will lease the campus back. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are managing the bond sale. This financing model allows Meta to record the cost as rent rather than capital spending, shifting the borrowing to the BlackRock-controlled entity.
This El Paso structure mirrors a previous arrangement Meta used for its Hyperion data center in rural Richland Parish, Louisiana. In that deal, private-credit firm Blue Owl owns 80% of the joint venture, and Meta owns 20%. The Hyperion project involved a $27 billion bond sale last year, which was the largest private-debt offering on record. BlackRock itself reportedly purchased over $3 billion of those bonds. In July 2026, Meta announced plans to expand Hyperion to 5 gigawatts, pushing its projected cost to $50 billion.
Meta's capital expenditure guidance for 2026 is between $115 billion and $130 billion, almost double its $72.3 billion in 2025, reflecting increased demand for AI infrastructure. The decision to use external financing, rather than funding the El Paso project from its cash flows (Meta generated approximately $62 billion in free cash flow in 2025), is a strategic move. This approach provides a template for financing large-scale AI infrastructure, allowing less cash-rich entities to access similar funding. The bonds in these off-balance-sheet deals are long-dated, but concerns exist regarding the depreciation of accelerators within the buildings over five years and if the leases will cover the debt repayment period.
