Meta has announced a $27 billion financing partnership with Blue Owl Capital to support construction of its largest-ever data centre project in Louisiana. The agreement, revealed on Tuesday, represents Meta’s biggest private capital deal to date, underscoring the company’s growing investment in infrastructure to power artificial intelligence technologies.
Under the arrangement, Meta will hold a 20 per cent equity stake in the project, while funds managed by Blue Owl Capital will own the remaining majority share. Blue Owl has contributed around $7 billion in cash to the venture, and Meta will receive a one-time payout of approximately $3 billion as part of the deal, Reuters reported.
Hyperion: Meta’s Largest Data Centre Project
The Louisiana facility, named Hyperion, is being developed in Richland Parish and is expected to provide over 2 gigawatts of compute capacity. This will support the training of large language models, the core technology behind generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
In a joint statement, Blue Owl Co-CEOs Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz described the initiative as “an ambitious project that reflects the scale and speed required to power the next generation of AI infrastructure.”
AI Infrastructure Boom Across Tech Giants
Meta’s announcement comes amid an industry-wide race to expand AI infrastructure. According to Morgan Stanley estimates, major technology firms including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and CoreWeave are collectively set to spend $400 billion on AI-related infrastructure this year alone.
Meanwhile, OpenAI, one of the leading players in the AI sector, has reportedly entered into several agreements totalling over $1 trillion, aimed at securing 26 gigawatts of computing capacity – enough to power 20 million U.S. homes.
Meta Seeks To Balance Growth And Risk
Susan Li, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer, hailed the deal as “a bold step forward,” noting that the company has already signed leases for the facility with an initial four-year term, extendable upon review. Once operational, the project is projected to create more than 500 jobs in the region.
Industry analysts view the deal as a strategic financial move. Alvin Nguyen, Senior Analyst at Forrester, said the agreement helps Meta mitigate risks while preserving liquidity. “It definitely helps them mitigate risks at the expense of its ownership stake. Meta won’t need to provide nearly as much capital and can look to finance other facilities or AI infrastructure,” Nguyen explained.
He added that the structure of the deal also reduces Meta’s debt exposure on equipment and property, offering protection “in the event there is a bursting of the AI bubble.”
