Meta is aiming to raise $29 billion to bankroll its AI push, turning to private capital firms for help. The plan: $3 billion in equity and $26 billion in debt to fund US data centers, sources say.
Big names like Apollo Global Management, KKR, Brookfield, Carlyle, and Pimco are in talks. Meta is still working out how to structure that massive debt raise — possibly one of the largest private deals ever. There’s a chance the total raise could grow.
Partnering with private firms spreads the huge costs and risks. Meta is working with Morgan Stanley to make the debt more tradeable, a key concern given the deal’s size. 
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has ramped up his AI efforts after a rough year. Its Llama 4 model underperformed, and the flagship “Behemoth” model release got pushed back.
Meta recently announced a $15 billion investment in ScaleAI, a data labeling startup. ScaleAI’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, joins Meta’s new “superintelligence” team focused on artificial general intelligence.
Zuckerberg is aggressively poaching top AI talent. Three top OpenAI researchers joined Meta this week. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman revealed Zuckerberg offered $100 million sign-on bonuses.
At May earnings, Meta bumped its full-year capex forecast to $64-$72 billion, citing “additional data center investments” and higher infrastructure hardware costs.
This month, Meta locked in a 20-year deal to buy nuclear power from an Illinois plant, its first nuclear energy deal, plus four partnerships with clean energy firm Invenergy.
Other AI giants lean on private investors too. OpenAI is teaming with SoftBank and Oracle on a $500 billion data center project, and Blue Owl is backing a $15 billion JV to build facilities in Texas.
Apollo last year closed an $11 billion deal financing Intel’s chip plants in Ireland, showing this is a growing trend. These deals keep debt off companies’ balance sheets, protect ratings, and share risk with asset managers.
Meta, Morgan Stanley, Apollo, Brookfield, Carlyle, KKR, and Pimco all declined to comment.
Private capital is becoming a key player in AI infrastructure funding, as tech giants race to scale and compete on AI firepower.
