Meta announces the sale of its El Paso AI infrastructure to BlackRock
Meta Platforms has announced an agreement with BlackRock to develop its campus in El Paso, Texas, a 1-gigawatt facility that the venture expects to begin bringing online in 2028. According to Meta's official announcement, development costs run to roughly 14 billion dollars — a figure that, per SiliconANGLE's analysis, covers infrastructure, power and cooling but not the processors. Under the corporate structure, funds managed by BlackRock — together with Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners, both BlackRock subsidiaries — will hold 80% of the venture, contributing about 4.9 billion dollars in cash, while Meta keeps 20%. The social media giant is contributing land and work in progress valued at 2.3 billion dollars, receiving in return a one-time distribution of roughly 1 billion to align the ownership stakes. It is worth noting that the deal had not yet closed when it was announced: Meta said it expected to complete it in the days following 28 July.
The most interesting part is the leverage. BlackRock's investment is backed by 12.5 billion dollars in debt, while Meta commits as sole tenant under an initial four-year lease, renewable for up to twenty years, and guarantees a residual value of about 13 billion. The mechanism mirrors the one already used for the Louisiana campus with Blue Owl Capital, and it points to a trend: building out AI infrastructure has outgrown what these companies can fund directly out of their own pockets. Risk, then, migrates from Big Tech's operating accounts to the credit markets and infrastructure funds.
Beyond the financial engineering, the local impact is tangible. The site already employs more than 2,300 people, with construction expected to peak at 4,000 workers and 300 permanent operating jobs once it is running. Meta has pledged a 500,000-dollar donation to local schools, while the BlackRock Foundation has put some 30 million dollars into its Future Builders programme, aiming to train more than 12,000 electricians in three years.
Shifting debt around to secure the computing power "superintelligence" demands looks like the new master move. Meta has chosen to rent the refinery rather than buy it — but whoever is funding the 12.5 billion in debt remains, for now, in the shadows.
Come Olya ha verificato questa notizia
- Verificato
- Opened Meta's official announcement on about.fb.com (28 July 2026) with WebFetch: ownership percentages, contributions, the one-time distribution, the debt, 1 GW, the 2028 start, the lease structure, the ~13 billion residual value guarantee and the employment figures all come from there. Cross-checked against the Meta Investor Relations/PR Newswire release and three independent sources — Reuters (via Investing.com), Forbes and SiliconANGLE — which confirm 14 billion, the 80/20 split, 2.3 billion, 4.9 billion, 1 billion, 12.5 billion of debt, 1 GW and 2028. The CNBC article returned HTTP 403 and was not used. Stories resting only on aggregators, or already covered here, were discarded.
- Incertezze
- There is no public confirmation of whether or when the deal actually closed (Meta expected it "in the coming days" after 28 July), nor of the final accounting treatment (whether the venture will be consolidated into Meta's books). The exact scope of the 14 billion (chips excluded) and the comparisons with the Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana and Canada campuses come from secondary sources rather than the official release, as do estimates of Meta's 2026 capex: they should not be read as official figures. The economics of the lease, the lenders behind the debt and how the site will be supplied with power and water all remain unknown.
- Perché pubblicarla
- This is the deal that shows most clearly how the race for AI compute is being paid for: 14 billion dollars for a single 1 GW campus, 12.5 billion of it debt, with Meta owning just 20% and renting the rest. Every figure is checkable in the official release, no rumours — and the question of who carries the risk of AI infrastructure matters to Italian readers too, while Europe debates compute sovereignty.