Meta, US asset manager Blue Owl partner on $27b AI data center

Meta and funds managed by Blue Owl Capital have formed a joint venture to finance, develop, and operate the Hyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana.

Funds managed by Blue Owl Capital, a US-based alternative asset manager, will own an 80% interest in the venture, while Meta retains 20%.

This partnership was designed to support the speed and flexibility required for Meta’s data center projects and long-term AI ambitions.

Both parties will fund their share of the campus’s estimated US$27 billion development costs, which cover buildings and infrastructure for power, cooling, and connectivity.

Meta contributed land and construction assets to the joint venture, while Blue Owl’s funds made a cash contribution of about US$7 billion.

Meta received a one-time distribution of around US$3 billion from the joint venture.

Once construction is complete, Meta will lease all facilities at the campus under a four-year term with extension options.

🔗 Source: Meta

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Meta holds 20% of the JV, with four-year operating leases plus a 16-year residual value guarantee (capped payment commitment tied to future campus value if leases are not renewed) that limit risk.
Entergy (the regional electric utility) targets a 100-mile 500 kilovolt (kV) line by December 2026, with three gas-fired units (new natural gas power plants) online in 2028–2029 1 2.
The timing gap puts $7 billion from Blue Owl into infrastructure before power goes live, which shifts execution risk to the JV while Meta keeps the option to exit through initial terms.
Environmental groups filed motions over gas plant approvals, which creates cost and permitting risk despite the $1.2 billion transmission spend 1.
Richland Parish sits 30 miles east of Monroe in Louisiana, a small data center state where Lumen (a national fiber carrier formerly known as CenturyLink), AT&T and Zayo (a wholesale fiber network operator) run fiber 2 3.
The 2 gigawatt (GW) Hyperion campus could expand to 5GW and will need long-haul plus metro links plus cloud on-ramps (direct private connections into cloud providers) that may exceed regional capacity, opening room for builds 1 4 3.
Route builds can link Richland Parish to New Orleans’ neutral exchange point (a carrier-agnostic internet meet-me location) plus submarine cable landings in Texas, Mississippi and Florida to deliver links 3.
Meta leases the campus from a JV where it holds a minority stake and providers delivering redundant paths into national backbones could win tenancy (an early, multi-year customer commitment).