BlackRock launches $12.3B bond sale to fund Meta AI data center in Texas

BlackRock is marketing a $12.3 billion high‑grade bond issue, due in 2048, to finance a 1‑gigawatt AI data‑center campus in El Paso, Texas. The project is owned by a special‑purpose vehicle, Sopaipilla Investor, in which BlackRock’s subsidiaries Global Infrastructure Management and HPS Investment Partners hold an 80 % stake and Meta Platforms holds the remaining 20 %.

The bonds are being sold by JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. Initial pricing discussions indicate a premium of about 2.875 percentage points over 10‑year U.S. Treasury yields and yields above 7 %, roughly a 0.4‑percentage‑point risk premium compared with Meta’s earlier Hyperion data‑center financing. Demand has been softer than expected, with final orders around 1.6 times the offering size, reflecting broader investor wariness after a surge of large AI‑related debt sales by tech firms.

The deal is among the largest single data‑center bond offerings this year and serves as a test of market appetite for massive, long‑duration AI infrastructure financing amid concerns over AI capex sustainability.