EL PASO, Tx., July 29, 2026: On the desert northeast of El Paso a new front in the battle between datacenter developers and community concerns has opened over the economics behind artificial intelligence (AI). An effort to remove a city representative, Cynthia Boyar Trejo, masks the larger battle over who protects local resources against the growing economic dependence AI is imposing on the global economy, and national security.
Investment firm BlackRock recently announced a joint venture to help finish the controversial AI META datacenter in the northeast. The El Paso META datacenter development is estimated to cost around $14 billion. Most of the development cost, about $12.5 billion is debt financing for the project. BlackRock-managed funds are expected to contribute around $4.9 billion for an 80% stake in the datacenter project, while META’s contribution will be $2.3 billion including the land and the partial construction it has completed, under the tax incentives 380 Agreement it holds in El Paso, leaving them with a 20% stake.
The El Paso AI datacenter will rank among the largest AI datacenter facilities in the country.
The project, however, illustrates how Wall Street is financing the country’s AI race against backlash across the country against large datacenters in communities raising questions about accountability, environmental costs and ultimately who benefits from them.
A key issue to understanding BlackRock’s financial investment in El Paso, although not articulated, is the recent wins by communities across the country that stopped datacenter developments in their towns. As cities succeed in stopping new datacenter developments, partially built datacenters like the El Paso META become attractive to investors looking to invest in AI. Originally slated as a $10 billion datacenter, its new price tag has risen to $14 billion as the original plan for a META only datacenter has become a datacenter campus for diminishing AI computing power as more communities refuse to allow them into their backyards.
At the center of AI boom is BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, who can finance the mega projects.
Under the partnership announced yesterday, BlackRock’s investors will own 80% of the El Paso facility while META retains 20%. The larger facility is expected to provide around one gigawatt (GW) of computing capacity for META. There are only five 1 GW AI datacenters slated to go online this year. Two are in Texas. El Paso will be home to the sixth 1 GW AI datacenter when it goes online next year. In total, there are 15 1GW capacity datacenters planned to go online over the next couple of years.
There are no 1GW-capacity datacenters operating today, although five of them will come online later this year.
The Hyperscale datacenters are expected to consume between 9% to 17% of America’s electricity generation by 2030 not only pressuring the country’s electrical grid but leaving open the question of who will pay for the additional electrical needs – the datacenter owners or electricity consumers?
The BlackRock investment in the El Paso datacenter shows that Wall Street is becoming the builder of AI datacenters allowing them to rapidly expand in the race to build the most AI computing capacity in the world.
Wall Street Becomes the Builder
The institutional investment in the El Paso datacenter reflects the shift in how AI infrastructure will now be built.
Just as pension funds once funded airports, financed toll roads and pipelines, institutional investors are now looking at AI infrastructure as the latest long term investment revenue source.
The BlackRock investment in El Paso’s datacenter does not make Blackrock the designer or operator of the AI servers. Instead, investments in AI are providing revenues to state pension systems, insurance companies, university endowments and charitable foundations through computing power needed by companies like Anthropic, Google, META, Oracle and others.
The investment revenues are important to understand because BlackRock generally does not own the assets it invests in, instead the assets are operated by those building it, like META in the case of El Paso, while substantial profits are funneled to the investors behind BlackRock.
What this means for residents concerned about the impact the datacenters will have in their communities, is not the builder, like META they must contend with, but the investors like universities and pensions that are making money out of the datacenters to remain solvent.
What About Foreign Investors?
BlackRock manages trillions of dollars. Its funds come from U.S. pension funds, retirement systems, nonprofits and foreign investors including sovereign wealth funds. A sovereign wealth fund is money that a country uses to invest in stocks, real estate and other investments to support its economy.
The top five sovereign funds include two Chinese funds, the State Administration of Foreign Exchanges (SAFE) and the China Investment Corporation. The non-profit Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) founded in 2007 by farmers, ranchers and manufacturers advocates for higher tariffs to limit imports to protect American industries.
In its April 2024 report, How All Street’s Offshore Companies Fund the CCP & PLA, the nonprofit argues that investments by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through Wall Street investments “put the United States at risk by giving Beijing leverage over American firms with disproportionate economic and political influence.”
On June 5, 2026, the White House issued a presidential memorandum proclaiming that AI “will be among the most transformative technologies to national security in the history” of the country. The memorandum encourages the rapid development of AI datacenters for national security.
While the White House encourages the rapid development of AI datacenters as a national security requirement, specifically signaling that the country must lead the effort against China, the non-profit CPA argues that BlackRock invests in “about 30 subsidiaries of Chinese Military-Industrial Complex” companies, they say “under Treasury Department sanctions.” The CPA report adds that the Chinese Communist Party uses investment markets “in pursuit of greater military strength.” The non-profit writes that it identified 29 companies that BlackRock it says are tied to the Chinese military.
The participation of international capital in AI datacenters has become part of the larger national security debate. On one hand the U.S. seeks to build larger AI capacity as quickly as possible, but the possible use of foreign investment raises questions about how it can affect national security.
Foreign investments do not necessarily mean foreign control of AI datacenters. But some national security analysts argue that heightened scrutiny is warranted for the financial arrangements behind the AI campuses being built, while others argue that outside capital strengthens America’s technology leadership.
The debate over the intersection between rapid datacenter development and foreign investments is just beginning with El Paso on the frontlines of rising concerns in AI technologies, including national security, foreign investments and who controls the AI models being developed.
El Paso Seeks a Seat at the Table
While Wall Street assembled billions in financing and questions about national security begin to be asked, many El Paso residents have focused on a different question:
What does the community receive in return?
Local officials and community advocates have demanded discussions surrounding a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) between the city council and META officials. Such agreements are commonly used in major development projects to establish commitments on issues such as workforce development, environmental protections, infrastructure improvements, and neighborhood investment.
According to KTSM’s reporting, META expressed reluctance to enter into a formal CBA, preferring to continue working through existing community engagement efforts rather than negotiating a binding CBA agreement. That position has generated criticism from some local leaders and residents who argued that a project of this scale should include enforceable commitments reflecting its long-term impact on El Paso.
The discussion reflects a broader national pattern. Across the country, communities hosting large AI datacenters have increasingly sought legally enforceable agreements governing infrastructure investment, workforce training, environmental monitoring, and public transparency.
The Energy Question
Perhaps no issue has become more contentious than electricity.
Modern AI data centers require extraordinary amounts of power. Facilities measured in hundreds of megawatts – and increasingly in gigawatts – consume electricity on a scale comparable to that of small cities. Texas is exploring measures to protect ratepayers against the cost of building electrical capacity for datacenters, while El Paso will soon be home to one of only six 1GW datacenters in the nation.
Meanwhile electrical utilities nationwide have announced billions of dollars in investments to expand transmission networks, construct substations, and add new generating capacity to meet projected AI demand.
Supporters argue these investments modernize the electric grid, create construction jobs, and strengthen the American technology competitiveness.
Critics counter that rapid AI expansion could contribute to higher electricity costs, delay the retirement of fossil-fuel generating plants, and increase greenhouse gas emissions where renewable generation cannot keep pace with the demand.
Water in the Desert
Water has emerged as another central issue.
Many large datacenters rely on evaporative cooling systems that consume significant quantities of water, particularly during hot summer months. El Paso’s Northeast datacenter developer argues it will rely on a closed-system for cooling rather than on evaporative cooling.
However, META is not contractually obligated to use a closed-cooling system in its El Paso datacenter development. The agreement between META and El Paso is tied directly to job creation and not to the use of water resources.
In arid regions such as El Paso, where long-term water availability is already a concern, residents and environmental advocates have questioned whether large industrial facilities could place additional pressure on municipal supplies or regional aquifers.
Developers increasingly point to recycled water systems, closed-loop cooling technologies, and more efficient designs intended to reduce consumption. Actual water use, however, depends on facility design, local climate, operating conditions, utility infrastructure, and enforceability.
Does BlackRock Change the Equation?
BlackRock’s participation fundamentally changes the financing of the El Paso datacenter but does not necessarily change anything about the environmental concerns, while raising national security questions.
The investment firm’s involvement makes it easier for technology companies to secure the enormous capital required for AI infrastructure without financing every project directly with their own money.
How that will improve environmental concerns remains unclear.
Institutional investors often require extensive environmental reporting, governance standards, and long-term risk assessments. Those expectations may encourage more efficient designs or stronger disclosure practices.
At the same time, abundant access to investment capital can accelerate the pace of construction, potentially increasing the demands on the electrical grid and water consumption.
For critics, Wall Street financing does not resolve the underlying concern – it simply enables faster expansion.
The Stakes
The El Paso project illustrates how America’s AI future increasingly depends on partnerships between technology companies and global capital markets.
As artificial intelligence becomes a strategic economic and national security priority, debates over ownership, environmental sustainability, community participation, and critical infrastructure are likely to intensify.
For El Paso, the questions extend beyond one datacenter.
Who should profit from America’s AI revolution? How can communities like El Paso share in the benefits of the AI revolution while protecting its community’s resources? As billions of dollars flow into AI infrastructure from investors around the globe, how should policymakers balance openness to investment with the protection of strategic national interests?
The leadership of the city council apart from Josh Acevedo, Lily Limón and Chris Canales argue that the jobs and potential tax revenues benefit El Paso while protecting its meager resources. That was before foreign investments, however small. The power of institutional investments raises more questions about who truly benefits from rapid AI datacenters like the one in El Paso.
At the end of the day, who is at the center of the important questions posed by datacenters around natural resources and national security is clearly now El Paso.
Cover Photograph: Photographic illustration depicting AI in El Paso with a military officer using an AI console over a dry desert. Credit Martín Paredes/El Paso Herald Post.
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This article was updated on July 30th to add that Josh Acevedo also opposed the META datacenter.