Meta Platforms is aiming to secure $29 billion from private equity firms to develop AI data centers in the United States, according to reports.

The parent company of Facebook is in advanced talks with private credit investors such as Apollo Global Management, KKR, Brookfield, Carlyle, and PIMCO, reports claim.

Meta intends to raise $3 billion in equity and $26 billion in debt, with discussions ongoing about the debt's structure and the possibility of obtaining additional funding.

This fundraising effort occurs as Meta amplifies its focus on artificial intelligence, including a $14.8 billion investment in Scale AI.

In January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that the company plans to invest up to $65 billion this year to enhance its AI infrastructure, aiming to solidify its competitive stance against rivals like OpenAI and Google in the pursuit of AI technological leadership.

Meta is collaborating with Morgan Stanley to facilitate the financing and is exploring avenues to make the debt more tradable post-issuance.

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Leading tech companies are heavily investing to obtain the substantial computing power required for AI models, resulting in increased demand for specialized data centers that connect thousands of chips into high-performance clusters.

Microsoft has announced a capital expenditure plan of $80 billion for fiscal 2025, primarily focused on expanding data centers to address capacity issues for AI services.

With Meta preparing to make a significant investment in a $10 billion data center in Louisiana shortly after investing around $14 billion in Scale AI, the momentum of its AI initiatives appears to be accelerating, positioning it well in the competitive landscape against firms such as Microsoft and NVIDIA.

Reports from February suggested that Apollo Global Management is negotiating to lead a financing package of around $35 billion for Meta to facilitate the development of data centers in the US.

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Other construction firms focused on AI data centers already utilize debt to fund their projects.

CoreWeave Inc., which runs an AI-optimized public cloud, had approximately $8 billion in debt on its balance sheet as of last December, backing some loans with the graphics cards from its data centers.

Debt financing is also reportedly playing a role in supporting OpenAI's AI development plans. Crusoe Energy Systems LLC, a startup based in Denver, along with investment firm Blue Owl Capital, have successfully obtained $7 billion in loans to create a data center complex in Texas. Oracle Corp. is expected to use this location to house $40 billion worth of Nvidia Corp. chips for OpenAI.