Meta Platforms and BlackRock announced a joint venture July 28 to develop and operate a roughly $14 billion data center campus in El Paso, Texas, with BlackRock-managed funds taking an 80% ownership stake in a project built to support Meta’s expanding artificial intelligence computing needs.
The campus will provide about 1 gigawatt of computing capacity, with Meta as its sole tenant once construction is complete. Under the venture’s structure, Meta is contributing roughly $2.3 billion in land and construction-in-progress assets while BlackRock is contributing about $4.9 billion in cash; the remainder of the $14 billion development cost is being financed through $12.5 billion in debt. Meta will also receive a one-time distribution of about $1 billion as part of aligning the two companies’ ownership stakes. Meta’s lease carries a four-year initial term with four extension options, for a potential total term of 20 years, and includes a residual value guarantee structured around a roughly $13 billion threshold that decreases over time.
“Building the infrastructure for superintelligence is key to making sure the benefits of this technology are distributed to everyone,” said Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the companies’ announcement.
“We’re excited to partner with Mark and the Meta leadership team on the El Paso data center campus, which will create thousands of skilled jobs,” said BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink.
The companies said the project is expected to generate more than 4,000 peak construction jobs and roughly 300 permanent operational roles once complete, with first computing capacity targeted to come online in 2028. Meta said it is providing a $500,000 grant to El Paso public schools to expand STEM programs and skilled-trades pathways and will continue funding regional water restoration projects, while BlackRock said its Future Builders program, valued at nearly $30 million, aims to train more than 12,000 electricians nationally over the next three years.
The deal reflects a financing structure that has become increasingly common as hyperscale AI operators seek to keep massive data center construction costs off their own balance sheets. It closely parallels an arrangement RealtyWire has previously reported on for Meta’s Hyperion data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, where Blue Owl Capital holds an 80% stake backed by $27 billion in debt while Meta retains a 20% interest and remains the tenant — the same basic 80/20 outside-investor structure now repeated in El Paso, though with a different financial partner and roughly half the debt load. El Paso also joins a growing list of Texas data center megaprojects, including Hut 8’s 1-gigawatt Beacon Point campus near Corpus Christi and the planned 2-gigawatt Alpha Digital Campus in Reeves County.
What it means: The deal structure, financing figures, executive quotes and job-creation estimates are drawn directly from the companies’ joint announcement. The repeated use of an 80/20 outside-investor ownership structure across Meta’s Louisiana and Texas data centers is a verifiable pattern in Meta’s public financing arrangements, not RealtyWire speculation. What to watch: whether the venture’s financial close proceeds on the timeline described, and whether local ratepayer or tax-incentive questions arise in El Paso similar to those RealtyWire has reported around Meta’s Louisiana project.
