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Meta and BlackRock team up for data center in El Paso, Texas

Meta and investment management firm BlackRock have formed a joint venture to develop a data center campus in El Paso, Texas.

The campus will offer 1GW of compute capacity and will see Meta investing more than $10 billion in the project located off of Stan Roberts Sr Avenue in El Paso.

meta el paso II

– Meta

Meta will provide construction management, administrative, and property management services for the campus and will be the initial sole occupant of the campus upon completion, while BlackRock brings its capital at scale and expertise in infrastructure investment to the JV.

BlackRock funds will own 80 percent interest in the venture, with Meta owning the remaining 20 percent. The two have committed to funding their respective pro rata share of the approximately $14 billion in total development costs, including construction and infrastructure.

Meta will provide $2.3bn to the land and construction-in-progress assets, and BlackRock will offer cash contributions of $4.9bn.

Once construction is complete, Meta will enter lease agreements with the venture for use of the full data center campus with four-year initial terms and four extension options.

The transaction is expected to close shortly, and the venture will begin bringing capacity online in 2028.

“Building the infrastructure for superintelligence is key to making sure the benefits of this technology are distributed to everyone,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. “Our partnership with Larry and the team at BlackRock allows us to move faster and at greater scale – pairing our deep expertise in designing and operating world-class data centers with one of the world’s leading infrastructure investors.”

“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 and help drive economic growth in the local community,” said Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock. “Companies around the world are looking for long-term strategic partners to help develop their most important projects, and BlackRock is built to meet that need.

This transaction highlights the strength and scale of our combined capabilities with GIP and HPS, and how we can offer clients compelling investment opportunities at the center of AI infrastructure and energy.”

Meta broke ground on the data center campus in October 2025, having planned a project on the 1,000-acre site since late 2023.

In March 2026, Meta said it would invest $10 billion in the campus. Some of the power for the campus will come from 813 modular gas generators, slated to come online by 2027, to power the site.

This would total 366MW, and cost $473m.

In April 2026, the company filed to develop a further 12 data center buildings and five substations for the campus.

This is not the first JV BlackRock has formed in the data center space. Earlier this month, the company and construction firm ACS partnered to form Coravel, a data center platform targeting hyperscalers and also working on a Texas campus.

The investment firm has also seeded a venture in the UK with Digital Gravity Partners, dubbed Gravity Edge.

 

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