J P Morgan and MUFG to Finance to Vantage Data Centers

The US-based multinational bank J P Morgan and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group have agreed to provide a $22 billion loan facility to finance Vantage Data Centers’ $25 billion data centre campus in Shackelford County, Texas.

The two banks have committed to underwrite the infrastructure financing for the 1,200-acre development, which will comprise 10 data centres and represents one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind when completed.

The campus described as “Frontier” was announced early this week and was supported by local politicians including Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott, who said that everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes innovation and technology.

Private capital groups Silver Lake and DigitalBridge are expected to provide a combined $3 billion in equity financing to support the project. Silver Lake, which was a founding investor in Vantage, co-led a $9.2 billion financing round for the company alongside DigitalBridge last year after reinvesting in 2024.

First Facility be Ready in 2026

The first data centre within the campus is scheduled for completion by mid-2026, with the remaining nine facilities built by the end of 2028, according to media reports.

It may be recalled that Meta Platforms has chosen Pacific Investment Management Company and Blue Owl Capital to lead a $29 billion financing package for its data centre expansion in rural Louisiana.

Blue Owl has also helped finance a $15 billion project for Oracle and OpenAI in Texas, whilst Elon Musk’s xAI raised $10 billion of debt and equity in July for its Tennessee data centre construction.

Vantage was established in 2010 with initial investment from Silver Lake and began operations with a data centre acquired from Intel and it has grown into a global data centre operator.

Silver Lake sold Vantage to DigitalBridge in 2017 for around $1 billion before reinvesting as part of last year’s financing round. The company initially built data centres for cloud computing operations but has recently focused on facilities with advanced specifications required for AI technologies.

According to Reuters, a report from commercial real estate services firm JLL said that data centers remain among the most favoured real estate asset classes due to insatiable tenant demand, limited supply and rising rents, with its market capitalisation up 161% between 2019 and 2025.

Texas has emerged as a leading site for data center expansion, due to its relatively low electricity costs, Reuters added.