Meta just locked down $27 billion in funding for what could become one of the largest AI data center campuses in the United States. The social media giant's partnership with Blue Owl Capital for the Hyperion facility in Louisiana signals how desperate Big Tech has become to secure the infrastructure needed for their AI ambitions - and how willing they are to give up control to get it.
Meta is betting big on AI infrastructure, and it's willing to give up majority control to make it happen. The company announced a groundbreaking $27 billion joint venture with Blue Owl Capital to develop the massive Hyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana - one of the largest AI infrastructure deals in tech history.
The partnership flips the usual playbook. Instead of going it alone, Meta is handing Blue Owl Capital an 80% ownership stake while keeping just 20% for itself. In return, Meta gets something more valuable right now: cold hard cash and built-in financing flexibility. Blue Owl pumped in $7 billion upfront, immediately cutting Meta a $3 billion check that helps fund the company's broader AI expansion.
"Our AI ambitions will be realized through our ability to deliver the infrastructure to support it," Meta CFO Susan Li said in the announcement. "Our partnership with Blue Owl Capital to develop the Hyperion Data Center is a bold step forward."
The deal structure reveals just how capital-intensive the AI race has become. Meta has been burning through billions on data centers, chips, and computing power to compete with OpenAI, Google, and others in the generative AI space. By bringing in Blue Owl - a firm with deep pockets and infrastructure expertise - Meta can accelerate construction without stretching its balance sheet further.
The Hyperion campus represents more than just another data center. With thousands of construction workers already on site according to Meta's Rachel Peterson, VP of Data Centers, this facility is designed specifically for the massive computational demands of AI training and inference. The $27 billion price tag covers not just buildings but the "long-lived power, cooling, and connectivity infrastructure" that modern AI workloads require.
What makes this deal particularly interesting is Meta's lease-back arrangement. The company will rent the facilities from its own joint venture through four-year agreements with extension options. It's a clever financial engineering move that gives Meta operational control while Blue Owl handles the capital risk. Meta even provided a 16-year residual value guarantee, essentially promising to cover potential losses if the partnership goes sideways.
