Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has secured financing for the construction of the Hyperion Data Center campus in Louisiana with asset manager Blue Owl Capital as the social media and tech giant pulls off one of the largest private capital deals on Wall Street to fulfill its AI infrastructure buildout commitments.
The data center will be developed at a total cost of $27B via a joint venture between Meta and Blue Owl, according to an official statement on Tuesday.
Blue Owl will own the controlling 80% stake in the JV, and Meta will own the rest. The parties will contribute financially to the project on a pro rata basis. The data center is expected to create 500 jobs once online.
A report from Bloomberg last Friday suggested that Hyperion will be the largest of Meta’s 29 data centers around the world, a 4 million–square–foot complex in rural Louisiana.
Blue Owl Capital has put $7B into the joint venture, and Meta earned a one-time distribution of about $3B, the parties said. A portion of capital raised by Blue Owl will be funded by debt issued to PIMCO and select other bond investors through a private securities offering.
Morgan Stanley (MS) is the exclusive financial advisor to Meta for this transaction and is the sole bookrunner in connection with the private securities offering.
Meta has signed a four-year lease on the land with an extension option and will have the right to use all the facilities of the campus once construction is complete. Additionally, Meta will provide construction management and property management services for the project.
Meta said it also provided the JV with a residual value guarantee for the first 16 years of operations and would make a capped cash payment to the venture based on the then-current value of the campus if certain conditions are met following a non-renewal or termination of lease.
“Our AI ambitions will be realized through our ability to deliver the infrastructure to support it,” Meta CFO Susan Li said. “Our partnership with Blue Owl Capital to develop the Hyperion Data Center is a bold step forward—combining Meta’s deep expertise in building and operating world-class data centers with Blue Owl’s strength in infrastructure investment.”
In January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he would invest up to $65B to build out data centers across the U.S., which would be crucial for powering his artificial intelligence, core products, and businesses.
Zuckerberg then targeted having about 1 GW of computing power and 1.3M GPUs at the company’s disposal by the end of the year.