This Week in Data Centers: Who Actually Owns Meta's Newest Gigawatt
BlackRock owns 80 percent of Meta's one-gigawatt El Paso campus and is selling over $12 billion of bonds against it. Inside the Aligned close, AIP's first deal, and Hut 8's $19.6 billion Texas campus.
Welcome to Global Data Center Hub. Join investors, operators, and innovators reading to stay ahead of the latest trends in the data center sector in developed and emerging markets globally.
In this week’s issue:
First, the landlord became the lender. BlackRock is selling over $12 billion of bonds to fund Meta’s one-gigawatt El Paso campus through Project Sopaipilla Holdings, where BlackRock’s GIP and HPS units hold 80 percent and Meta holds 20.
Two days earlier the same firm closed a $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers. If the cost of a gigawatt now sits in a project entity, what is hyperscaler capex guidance actually telling you?
Then, contracted revenue found a cheaper path. Hut 8’s second 352 MW Beacon Point lease, worth $9.8 billion, lifted campus contract value to $19.6 billion without a hyperscaler balance sheet. TECfusions took the brownfield conversion model public at a $4.0 billion valuation.
Finally, sovereign compute got a proof point. Z.AI completed a one-gigawatt campus on entirely Chinese-made chips, reportedly, while Microsoft committed billions to Mistral’s European buildout.
Let us get into it.
THIS WEEK BY REGION
The week’s biggest moves — what happened and what it signals.
North America
Ownership separated from occupancy this week. BlackRock marketed more than $12 billion of bonds to finance Meta’s roughly one-gigawatt El Paso campus, holding 80% of the project while Meta retains 20% as tenant. Two days earlier, BlackRock, AIP, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX acquired Aligned Data Centers at a roughly $40 billion valuation.
Hut 8 reached $19.6 billion of campus contract value without hyperscaler equity, while OpenAI committed $20 billion to Project Camellia, its first campus as principal builder.
For public markets equity investors, the mechanism is liability placement, because a campus financed at the project entity never reaches the parent’s capex line.
Asia-Pacific
Domestic silicon moved from policy to proof. Z.AI completed a one-gigawatt data center built entirely on Chinese-made accelerators, reportedly, and has begun partial operation training its GLM models on clusters of more than 10,000 domestic chips each.
The China Mobile-led SEA-H2X cable entered service as Malaysia’s infrastructure constraints drew scrutiny. The next GLM release will reveal whether its domestic stack can compete.
For tech and venture investors, the next GLM release is the evidence that settles whether the domestic stack competes.
Europe
Sovereignty is being purchased rather than legislated. Microsoft committed billions to Mistral’s European expansion, then contracted its France-based GPU capacity to serve Azure customers in regulated industries, without taking a new equity stake.
Mistral is building on Nvidia Vera Rubin systems, making the operating layer French while the silicon remains American.
For real estate and infrastructure investors, sovereign-designated capacity is now a distinct product, and the question is whether the label survives contact with the supply chain underneath it.
South America
Power is moving behind the meter because the grid will not arrive in time. Terra Innovatum signed a non-binding agreement to deploy up to 8 MWe of SOLO microreactors at data centers in Brazil. The deal is small, but the pattern is clear.
For tech and venture investors in emerging markets, behind-the-meter generation is becoming the entry condition where grid capacity cannot be contracted on a project timeline.
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS
Key structures and capital moves from this week’s deal tape.
BlackRock: over $12 billion of bonds for Meta’s El Paso campus
The bonds finance BlackRock's 80% stake in Project Sopaipilla, with Meta retaining 20% as tenant. Capital markets are now financing AI campuses as project credits backed by the asset and lease, not the parent's balance sheet.
For public markets investors, the mechanism is liability placement, and the spread at which these bonds clear will show whether the market prices Meta’s tenancy or the project itself as the credit.
AIP, MGX and GIP: $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers, plus $5 billion growth capital
The consortium acquired Aligned from Macquarie-managed funds at a roughly $40 billion enterprise value, with $5 billion for expansion across 51 campuses and 6.4 GW. Sovereign capital is now entering at platform scale, not through minority asset stakes.
For infrastructure funds, the mechanism is holding-period mismatch, because capital without a fund life competes for the same assets on a different clock.
Hut 8: $9.8 billion second lease commercializing the 1GW Beacon Point campus
The 15-year triple-net lease doubles contracted capacity to 704 MW with a 3.0% annual rent escalator. A secured interconnect and one investment-grade tenant created $19.6 billion of campus value without hyperscaler equity.
For operators, the mechanism is interconnection scarcity, and the party holding firm utility capacity sets the terms regardless of the size of the balance sheet across the table.
When the Owner and the Occupant Come Apart
The company running the AI does not own the building.
BlackRock proved that twice this week.
It is raising over $12 billion of bonds for a one-gigawatt Meta campus in El Paso.
The debt sits in Project Sopaipilla Holdings.
BlackRock’s GIP and HPS units hold 80 percent of that entity. Meta holds 20 percent and takes the compute.
Two days before, the same firm closed on Aligned Data Centers alongside AIP and MGX at approximately $40 billion, then committed $5 billion more.
Read at the surface, these are two large financings in one week. That reading misses what changed.
The cost of a gigawatt now sits at the project entity, not the parent’s capex. A Meta investor sees rent. A bondholder sees a one-gigawatt obligation. Both are accurate. Only one is complete.
The structure is not new. Meta used the same 80/20 joint venture at Hyperion, where the project raised a reported $27 billion of debt. El Paso follows the same template, with BlackRock now in the sponsor seat.
Now set that against Hut 8. Beacon Point reached $19.6 billion of base-term contract value this week on a second 352MW triple-net lease.
The tenant is investment-grade and doubled its footprint to 704MW. Hut 8 holds a 1,000MW interconnection agreement with AEP Texas.
No hyperscaler equity sits in that structure.
The contracted revenue is comparable in duration. The scarce input is the interconnect.
So here is the discipline.
Stop reading capex guidance as commitment. Find the project entity, ownership split, and lease term.
When underwriting an operator, ask what it controls that capital can’t replicate. A balance sheet can be raised in a week. A 1,000MW interconnection cannot.
The El Paso bonds will price shortly. If they price on Meta’s credit, the structure is presentation. If they price as project credit, the transfer is real and bondholders assume gigawatt-scale residual value risk.
Which one does the market believe, and what happens to every copy of this template if the answer is the second?
If you are new to Global Data Center Hub, visit our Start Here page for more information about the newsletter.
If you found this newsletter useful, share it with a colleague.
Have a great week.
— Obinna