TNB Tech Minute: BlackRock Leads Financing for Meta Data Center in Texas

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Julie Chang (0:31)

Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Monday, July 20th. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. BlackRock is leading a debt sale targeting at least $12 billion for a new 1GW data center project in Texas. That's according to people familiar with the matter. The investment firm owns an 80% stake in the El Paso project, while Meta Platforms owns 20% and will use the complex. JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are managing the jumbo debt sale. Over the past year, BlackRock has heavily invested in data centers alongside AI hyperscalers, including acquiring aligned data centers for $40 billion. Sources say Meta recently agreed to lease a large aligned data centers project under development in Pennsylvania.

Bank of America analysts write that Experian will benefit from the AI expansion due to its proprietary data. Fears of AI competition have caused a heavy sell-off in software stocks this year, including Experian. But the analysts say AI won't take Experian's customers because the credit reporting agency curates data that it owns or is hard to replicate and remains deeply embedded with key clients. They add that Experian can leverage AI to reduce costs.

And Chinese-owned EV maker Polestar won't appeal a federal ban on selling future models and will instead exit the US market. The ban was issued last month over national security concerns. The automaker's 32 US dealers now face paused projects. Dealers say they invested significant capital into Polestar showrooms, sales training and more, though state laws may require Polestar to compensate them for exiting the market. Besides dealers, US consumers who bought Polestar cars may suffer a massive hit to their resale values. The company is offering discounts of up to $25,000 to sell its remaining US inventory.

For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast.

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