Meta is building its largest AI training cluster at Hyperion, a data center campus in Louisiana that cost about $27 billion to develop. Meta values its stake in the campus at $2.92 billion. In the same quarterly report, it puts the largest loss it could face on Hyperion at $46.03 billion. That’s nearly 16X the value of its stake.
How Meta Financed Hyperion Without the Debt
Meta has a 20% stake in Hyperion. Funds managed by Blue Owl Capital have the other 80%. Blue Owl raised its share by selling $27.3 billion of bonds that mature in May 2049 to PIMCO and a small group of other investors.
Those bonds last 24 years. Meta’s leases on the campus last 4 years, starting in 2029. Meta can renew them or walk away at the end of any 4-year term. To make that gap acceptable to bond investors, Meta promised to cover shortfalls of up to about $28 billion if it leaves. Meta records that promise at zero.
Meta also has to explain why Hyperion’s buildings and debt don’t appear in its financial statements. That explanation is hard to reconcile with the terms Meta gave bond investors.