BlackRock to own 80% of Meta's $14 billion（約2.2兆円） El Paso AI data center

Meta and BlackRock announced on Tuesday a landmark partnership to develop and operate a 1,000-acre AI data center campus in El Paso, Texas. The project, valued at $14 billion（約2.2兆円） and designed to deliver one gigawatt of computing power, has been under construction for more than six months and will rank among the largest AI infrastructure projects in the country.

Under the agreement, Meta will contribute land and in-progress construction assets totaling approximately $2.3 billion（約3700億円）. BlackRock will make a cash contribution of approximately $4.9 billion（約7800億円）. Meta will also receive a $1 billion（約1600億円） distribution to align ownership stakes. The final ownership structure gives BlackRock-managed funds an 80% stake while Meta retains approximately 20%. This arrangement exemplifies a new financing model in which Wall Street financial firms take controlling stakes in Big Tech's data center infrastructure, reducing the direct balance-sheet burden on technology companies while providing institutional investors with long-term assets tied to the AI boom.

Meta's move follows a strikingly similar deal announced in October with Blue Owl Capital for the Hyperion AI data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana. In that transaction, Blue Owl funds received an 80% ownership stake, backed by approximately $3 billion（約4800億円） in direct investment and approximately $27 billion（約4.3兆円） in project bonds issued through a special-purpose holding company called Beignet Investor. The recurrence of this 80-20 ownership split and the rapid succession of these deals suggest Meta has settled on this financing strategy as a scalable response to mounting infrastructure costs.

The announcements arrive as investor anxiety about AI capital spending has intensified. After Meta's first quarter earnings report included a higher 2026 capital expenditure forecast—attributed by Chief Financial Officer Susan Li to higher memory-chip pricing and additional data center costs tied to AI infrastructure—the company's stock dropped approximately 10%, erasing about $175 billion（約28兆円） in market capitalization in a single day. Meta is scheduled to report second quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, adding further scrutiny to its spending trajectory. Other major technology companies are pursuing their own partnership strategies: OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX formed Stargate LLC to develop AI data centers across the United States with an initial $100 billion（約16兆円） investment target potentially scaling to $500 billion（約80兆円）, though they retain co-ownership rather than ceding control. Google partnered with Blackstone on a joint venture, Microsoft created a fund structure with BlackRock and Abu Dhabi's MGX, and Broadcom partnered with Apollo and Blackstone on an AI infrastructure platform. Across the country, more than 700 data centers are now under active construction in 38 U.S. states, according to Texas-based energy marketplace consultant Electric Choice, underscoring the scale of the infrastructure build-out underway.

Wall Street's deepening involvement in AI data center financing marks a significant shift in how Big Tech funds its infrastructure ambitions. Meta's announcement with BlackRock follows a similar partnership with Blue Owl Capital announced in October for the Hyperion project in Louisiana, establishing a repeatable model where financial firms take controlling stakes in exchange for substantial capital contributions. This strategy emerges against a backdrop of rising concern about AI capital expenditure: Meta's first quarter earnings forecasted higher 2026 spending partly due to data center costs, a disclosure that wiped approximately $175 billion（約28兆円） from the company's market capitalization in a single trading day.

Other technology and infrastructure players are pursuing comparable but structurally different approaches. The Stargate LLC consortium—formed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX—aims to invest $100 billion（約16兆円） initially, scaling to $500 billion（約80兆円）, but retains co-ownership with investors rather than ceding control. Google and Blackstone created a joint venture, while Microsoft, BlackRock, and Abu Dhabi's MGX structured a fund for institutional investors. These variations suggest the market is still establishing which ownership and governance models will become standard. The underlying reality is clear: more than 700 data centers are under construction across 38 U.S. states according to Electric Choice, a consulting firm—indicating that infrastructure financing will remain a central competition point in the AI race.

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