What to watch for
Meta will report its second quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. The company’s shares dropped about 10%, erasing about $175 billion from its market capitalization in a single day, after a first quarter earnings report included a higher 2026 capital expenditure forecast than previously estimated. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li attributed the increase to higher memory-chip pricing and additional data center costs tied to AI infrastructure.
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Investment Firms Are Backing Big Tech’s AI Dreams
Meta has gone all in on using financial firms to back its data centers. The company in October announced a similar deal with Blue Owl Capital to develop, own and finance the record-breaking Hyperion AI data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The deal created a special-purpose holding company called Beignet Investor to issue about $27 billion in project bonds to fund construction, and Blue Owl funds directly invested about $3 billion in exchange for an 80% ownership stake in the project. Other tech companies are also partnering with financial firms, but in different ways. OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX last year formed a new company, Stargate LLC, to develop AI data centers across the U.S., with an initial goal of investing $100 billion and eventually up to $500 billion. Unlike the Meta projects however, the tech companies and investors are co-owners of the platform. Google and Blackstone created a new joint venture to build a new AI-focused cloud business; Microsoft, BlackRock and state-backed Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX created a new fund structure that allows institutional investors to finance new AI infrastructure; and Broadcom recently partnered with Apollo and Blackstone to create an AI infrastructure platform targeting more than 20 gigawatts of AI compute deployments.
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BIG NUMBER
More than 700. That’s how many data centers are actively under construction across 38 U.S. states, according to Texas-based energy marketplace consulting company Electric Choice. Existing data centers are overwhelmingly concentrated in Virginia and Texas.
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further reading
ForbesClean Energy Tech Deals Are Booming—Powered By Data CentersBy Alan OhnsmanForbesNew York Halts Large Data Centers Being Built For A YearBy Siladitya RayForbesAI Data Centers Are Set To Electrify This $13 Billion Family’s 76-Year-Old CompanyBy Simone Melvin