BlackRock leads $12B bond financing for Meta Texas data centers

BlackRock is planning to issue more than $12 billion in bonds to finance a Meta data center campus in El Paso, Texas, in the latest jumbo debt deal backing Big Tech's artificial intelligence expansion.

BlackRock-controlled investment funds own an 80% interest in Project Sopaipilla Holdings, the entity behind the campus, while Meta Platforms holds the remaining 20%, according to people familiar with the transaction cited by Bloomberg.

The entity has mandated JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley to conduct investor presentations before the bonds are priced early next week, the people said. Earlier reports suggested total financing for the project could approach $13 billion.

The planned issuance is the latest example of multibillion-dollar financing deals supporting the rapid buildout of AI infrastructure. It follows a nearly $30 billion debt package completed by Meta and Blue Owl Capital last year to finance another large-scale data center project in Louisiana, showing the scale of capital required to meet surging demand for AI computing power.

AI Infrastructure Draws Record Debt Financing

The Texas deal reflects a broader shift in how Big Tech funds its AI ambitions. Rather than financing data center construction through corporate balance sheets alone, companies are increasingly turning to project finance structures that bundle debt against specific assets. This approach allows technology firms to preserve capital while scaling infrastructure at a pace that would strain even the largest corporate treasuries.

For BlackRock, the transaction marks a significant deployment of its private credit capabilities. The world's largest asset manager, with more than $11 trillion in assets under management, has been expanding its infrastructure and direct lending platforms to capture demand from technology companies seeking alternative financing sources. The deal also strengthens BlackRock's relationship with Meta, one of the most aggressive spenders on AI infrastructure among the major technology platforms.

The bond sale, if completed at the reported size, would rank among the largest single-asset debt financings in the corporate bond market this year. Investor appetite for data center-backed debt has grown as the asset class offers relatively stable cash flows tied to long-term leases with investment-grade technology tenants.

Private Credit's Growing Role in AI Buildout

The transaction also highlights the expanding role of asset managers in financing infrastructure that traditional bank lending may struggle to support at scale. BlackRock's private credit arm joins a growing list of alternative asset managers — including Blue Owl Capital, Brookfield Asset Management, and Apollo Global Management — that have committed tens of billions of dollars to data center financing over the past two years.

Data center capacity in the U.S. is projected to more than double by 2030, driven by the computational demands of training and running large language models, according to industry estimates. Meeting that demand will require more than $1 trillion in cumulative investment across power generation, fiber connectivity, and facility construction, creating a financing opportunity that asset managers are racing to capture.

For Meta, the El Paso campus represents a continuation of its strategy to own a stake in the infrastructure supporting its AI services. The company has said it expects capital expenditures to rise significantly in 2026 as it invests in servers, data centers, and network infrastructure to support its artificial intelligence initiatives.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.