Wall Street banks are shopping roughly $3 billion in loans tied to Meta’s Prometheus AI data center build in New Albany, Ohio, a giant financing push behind one of the largest data center projects in the country. The syndication moves part of the megaproject’s risk out into the market and highlights just how much cash and reliable electricity it takes to run enormous AI clusters. Local leaders and utilities have been haggling for months over where that power will actually come from as Meta races to scale the campus to a full gigawatt.
Banks Shop $3 Billion Loan Package
According to Bloomberg, a group of lenders is marketing about $3 billion of loans that support construction of the Prometheus campus. People familiar with the deal told the outlet that the general syndication is structured as a single transaction covering both the data center buildings and related power assets. Royal Bank of Canada and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. are the arrangers, while banks including Natixis SA, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Société Générale are among those selling slices of the financing.
What the $3 Billion Is Building
Prometheus is a 1 gigawatt cluster of AI-optimized data centers going up in New Albany, and Meta has inked deals with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra to lock in nuclear power for the project, according to AP. The company says those agreements are meant to provide firm, long-duration capacity as the campus grows toward its planned footprint. That power planning is not optional: the local transmission system cannot yet handle the full load Prometheus is expected to demand.
Why Banks Do Not Keep It All
Big infrastructure loans are typically sold down after they are made so that the arranging banks can manage their balance sheet exposure and capital requirements. A paper in The Review of Financial Studies notes that lead arrangers often trim their retained share soon after closing, shifting risk to institutional buyers such as other banks, collateralized loan obligations and loan funds. That kind of risk passing is how very large projects from stadiums to data centers get financed without any single lender carrying the whole thing alone.
What It Means for New Albany
For New Albany, the loan marketing is landing while regulators and utilities are still nailing down the power and permitting arrangements needed to keep the campus running. Regulators have cleared a 200 megawatt Socrates South natural gas plant to serve Meta’s site, and Meta has sought temporary access to an idle AEP substation to shift capacity, according to Data Center Dynamics. The financing push is unfolding alongside Meta’s hardware and supply deals for the Columbus-area buildout, including the Million-Chip Nvidia Deal that is set to feed those racks.
What to Watch Next
Investors will be watching whether the $3 billion package finds enough buyers and at what price, since those terms will help set an early benchmark for AI-era infrastructure debt. Industry observers point to Meta’s wider, multi-billion dollar financing needs for its so-called titan clusters, making this syndication a first test of how banks and institutional buyers are willing to underwrite the sector, as detailed by Data Center Frontier.
