Meta’s Latest AI Bet Comes A Day Before Q2 Earnings: BlackRock Joins $14B Data Center Venture

• Meta said the site will play a key role in training and deploying its next-generation AI models, supporting what CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described as the company's long-term pursuit of superintelligence.
• The project carries an estimated development cost of about $14 billion, with funds managed by BlackRock owning an 80% stake in the venture and Meta retaining the remaining 20%.
• Meta will also receive a one-time distribution of about $1 billion to align ownership with the agreed stake split.

Meta Platforms Inc. (META) is bringing BlackRock Inc. (BLK) into its AI infrastructure buildout through a new $14 billion venture to develop and own a 1-gigawatt data center campus in El Paso, Texas.

The venture will fund the construction and operation of the campus, which Meta says will provide the compute capacity needed to train and deploy next-generation AI models.

Meta shares were up nearly 1% in Tuesday’s pre-market trade, while BlackRock shares edged lower by 0.03%.

Powering META’s Superintelligence Push

The El Paso campus is expected to deliver 1 gigawatt of compute capacity, with the first infrastructure slated to come online in 2028.

Meta said the site will play a key role in training and deploying its next-generation AI models, supporting what CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described as the company's long-term pursuit of superintelligence.

The partnership also underscores an ongoing shift in AI infrastructure financing, as technology companies increasingly tap institutional investors to fund the multibillion-dollar data centers needed to support advanced AI systems.

Inside The $14B Deal

The project carries an estimated development cost of about $14 billion, with funds managed by BlackRock owning an 80% stake in the venture and Meta retaining the remaining 20%.

At closing, Meta will contribute land and construction-in-progress assets valued at approximately $2.3 billion, while BlackRock will invest roughly $4.9 billion in cash, funded in part through a $12.5 billion debt financing.

Meta will also receive a one-time distribution of about $1 billion to align ownership with the agreed stake split.

Meta will lease the entire campus from the venture under an initial four-year agreement with options to extend the arrangement for up to 20 years, giving the company long-term access to the compute infrastructure while sharing the upfront capital burden with institutional investors.

META’s Q2 Earnings Ahead

Meta is all set to report its second-quarter (Q2) earnings on Wednesday after the bell. The company is expected to report earnings per share (EPS) of $7.4 on revenue of $60.3 billion, according to Fiscal.ai data.

During the same period a year ago, Meta reported an EPS of $7.14 on revenue of $47.5 billion.

Wall Street will also watch out for Meta’s capital expenditure forecasts. “The Big Short” investor Steve Eisman on Monday warned that the markets will go “straight down” if any hyperscaler cuts its capital expenditure.

What Retail Traders Think Of META Stock

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around Meta trended in the ‘bearish’ territory at the time of writing.

META stock is down 10% year-to-date, while BLK stock is down 1%. The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 16% over the past 12 months, while the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) is up 20%.

The Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF (VUG) is up 10% during this period, while the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI) is up 16%.

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