The world’s biggest asset-manager stumped up more than 3 billion US dollars (2.8 billion euros) in bonds to help build Meta’s new Hyperion complex in Louisiana.

The 27 billion US dollar (24.8 billion euros) financing package was cooked up with private-credit outfit Blue Owl Capital, which will own 80 per cent of the project. Facebook-parent Meta keeps a modest 20 per cent slice, according to S&P Global Ratings.

It’s now the largest private-debt sale on record, and yet it came with a 6.58 per cent yield more often seen in junk-bond land. S&P still slapped on an A+ rating, mainly because of Meta’s backing.

Morgan Stanley arranged the sale. Pimco hoovered up about 18 billion US dollars (16.6 billion euros), while BlackRock’s own exchange-traded funds took a hearty bite. One of its high-yield ETFs made Hyperion its biggest single holding at 2.1 million US dollars (1.9 million euros). Others followed suit, with its total-return ETF holding 1.2 million US dollars (1.1 million euros) and a loan ETF adding another 651,000 US dollars (600,000 euros).

BlackRock’s bet on ETFs after the financial crisis helped it become the 5 trillion-dollar giant it is today, and Hyperion’s bonds have already fattened its books. By Monday, they’d jumped from 100 cents to 110.2 cents on the dollar, handing instant paper profits to early buyers.

Meta managed to keep the whole thing off its balance sheet. By pushing the debt through the Blue Owl partnership, it dodges the optics of another multi-billion-dollar liability while still bankrolling the infrastructure needed to feed its AI habit. Troubled Chipzilla did something similar last year with Apollo Global Management, raising 11 billion US dollars (10.1 billion euros) to fund a chip factory in Ireland.