Meta Platforms (META) and BlackRock (BLK) are partnering to develop and operate a $14 billion U.S. data centre campus located in El Paso, Texas.
Meta is one of the world’s biggest technology companies and BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with more than $15 trillion U.S. under management.
The race to build out artificial intelligence (A.I.) infrastructure has led tech companies to seek capital from fund managers such as BlackRock due to the scale of the investments.
In a news release, Meta said BlackRock will take an 80% ownership stake in the Texas data centre, with Meta retaining the other 20%.
A portion of BlackRock’s investment will be financed through $12.5 billion U.S. of debt. Meta will contribute land and construction assets worth $2.3 billion U.S.
The data centre project in El Paso, near the Texas-New Mexico border, is one of 28 data centres that Meta Platforms has under construction in the U.S.
The Texas facility is designed to provide one gigawatt of compute capacity that is essential for Meta’s A.I. technologies and supporting its business. Operations are expected to begin in 2028.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has said it plans to invest $600 billion U.S. to build data centres by 2028, with an aim to fast-track work on A.I. superintelligence.
META stock has declined 17% over the last 12 months to trade at $593.87 U.S. per share.
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