BlackRock is moving forward with a $12.3 billion bond sale to finance one of the largest AI-focused data centers in Texas, backed by Meta. BlackRock’s infrastructure and private credit arms jointly control 80% of the project, with Meta holding the remaining 20%. The El Paso facility is sized at about one gigawatt, putting it in the top tier of global data center developments tied to artificial intelligence buildout.
The key shift this time isn’t that funding has dried up, but that it’s getting more expensive, even for heavyweight issuers. Bond investors are demanding yields above 7%, about 0.4 percentage points higher than what Meta paid for a similar build roughly 9 months ago. Even a modest increase at this scale translates into tens of millions in additional annual interest cost. That’s because credit markets are now more selective: they’re pricing the risk, not just buying the AI story.
For crypto audiences, the takeaway is broader but still clear: capital is still available for major compute and data projects, but it is no longer coming as cheaply or as easily. Even in high-priority sectors, the cost of capital is now firmly part of the equation.