Meta publicly described an initial $1.5 billion El Paso development in October 2025. Its March 2026 expansion announcement increased the campus plan to approximately $10 billion and 1 gigawatt, with about 300 operational jobs and up to 4,000 construction workers at peak. These are development and employment expectations, not an audited count of permanent local employment. Construction jobs and ongoing operating jobs should always be reported separately. Meta’s October announcement, updated March 26; Meta’s March expansion update.
On July 28, Meta announced a joint venture with funds managed by BlackRock. The funds hold 80% and Meta 20%. Meta described approximately $14 billion in total development costs for buildings and long-lived infrastructure, supported in part by $12.5 billion of debt financing. These figures describe different financial categories and a later transaction; they cannot be treated as equivalent measures of money already spent locally. Planned capacity is expected to begin coming online in 2028. Meta’s venture announcement.
Meta’s initial leases last four years and include four renewal options, allowing occupancy for up to 20 years. The announcement also describes conditional residual-value guarantees, initially approximately $13 billion and declining over time, covering the first 16 years. The short initial lease therefore does not, by itself, establish that Meta could leave without substantial financial consequences. Nor do those guarantees establish uninterrupted operation or local employment for 20 years. Meta’s venture announcement.
A gigawatt is a measure of power, not annual energy consumption. The campus’s planned capacity should not be presented as its current electricity use. Comparisons with El Paso Electric’s system also require matching definitions: nameplate generation, dependable capacity, customer peak demand and annual energy are different measures.