Latham & Watkins, Eversheds Sutherland, Kirkland & Ellis, and Milbank advised on Meta and Blue Owl Capital’s joint venture to develop $27 billion Hyperion data center in Louisiana.

This partnership will support the speed and flexibility required for Meta’s data center projects and long-term AI ambitions. Funds managed by Blue Owl Capital will own an 80% interest in the joint venture, while Meta will retain the remaining 20% ownership. The parties have committed to fund their respective pro rata share of the approximately $27 billion in total development costs for the buildings and long-lived power, cooling and connectivity infrastructure at the campus. Meta will provide construction management and property management services for the project.

Latham & Watkins LLP represented Meta in the transaction with a corporate and real estate team led by San Diego Partner Ann Buckingham, Orange County partner Hilary Strong, Los Angeles partner Meghan Cocci, Bay Area Partners Greg Roussel and Saad Khanani, with Associates Isabella Sage-Lipshutz, Daniel Eyal, Rebecca Dixon, and Adrianna Robakowski. Advice was also provided on tax matters by Los Angeles Partner Ana O’Brien with Associate Arash Lotfi; on finance matters by Los Angeles Partner Jason Bosworth with counsel Emily Leong Yu; on antitrust matters by Bay Area Partner Kelly Fayne, Washington, D.C. Partner Patrick English, and Brussels/London Partner David Little, with Associate Nayantara Ravichandran; on energy regulatory matters by Washington, D.C. Partner Natasha Gianvecchio; on engineering, procurement, and construction matters by Houston Partner Jonathan Katz; on compliance matters by Washington D.C. partner Erin Brown Jones; and on regulatory matters by Washington D.C. Partner Paul Rosen.

Eversheds Sutherland advised Meta on leasing matters.

Kirkland & Ellis advised Blue Owl Capital on a joint venture with Meta Platforms, Inc. to finance the approximately $27 billion development of the Hyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana, which will consist of multiple data center buildings and power, cooling and connectivity infrastructure. Along with the JV, Meta entered into lease agreements for use of the campus facilities and a residual value guarantee. A portion of the capital raised by Blue Owl managed funds will be funded by debt issued to PIMCO and select other bond investors through a private securities offering. The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Adam Larson, Brittany Sakowitz, Patrick Moneypenny, Shelby Morgan, Markus Wang and Olga Cosme Toledo; real estate lawyers David Rosenberg, Andy Van Noord, Richard Grossmann, Michael Shultz, Robin Basu and Adamantia Giannakis; capital markets lawyers Julian Seiguer, Michael Rigdon, Ieuan List and Brooke Curry; debt finance lawyers Lucas Spivey, Osaro Aifuwa, Will Zakhary and Ben Wetzel; tax lawyers Mike Beinus, Justin Barbosa, Lora Shub-Brown and Joe Riddle; and energy regulatory lawyers John Decker and Andrew DeVore.

Milbank LLP advised Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, acting as sole bookrunner, in a private securities offering by funds managed by Blue Owl Capital to raise capital that will be invested into a joint venture with Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) to finance the development and conduct the operations of the Hyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The Milbank deal team was led by Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Partners Dan Bartfeld, Jaime Ramirez and Carolina Walther-Meade and Corporate Finance and Securities Partners Jonathon Jackson and Rod Miller, along with Corporate Finance and Securities special counsel Teresa Chen and Associates Isobel Smith, Allison Mahoney and Martha Schmidt and Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance special counsel Leah Chacón and Associate Beryl Yan.