In a week marked by high-stakes financial maneuvering and strategic alliances, Blue Owl Capital has emerged as a central player in two major deals shaping the future of both aviation and technology infrastructure. The New York-based alternative asset manager, with over $284 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2025, is making headlines for its dual role—partnering with Crestone Air Partners to launch a new aviation joint venture, and joining forces with PIMCO to spearhead Meta’s colossal $29 billion data center expansion in rural Louisiana.
On August 11, 2025, Crestone Air Partners, a Denver-based subsidiary of Air T, Inc. (NASDAQ: AIRT), announced the formation of Blue Crest Aviation Partners, a joint venture anchored by funds managed by Blue Owl Capital. This new platform is designed to acquire mid-life commercial jet aircraft leased to airlines worldwide, leveraging a disciplined, income-oriented strategy. The move marks a significant step for Crestone, which has steadily built its reputation as a full-service aviation asset management platform, focusing on the secondary market and the last decade of an aircraft’s lifecycle.
“Blue Crest Aviation Partners represents the next step of scaling for our platform,” said Kevin Milligan, CEO of Crestone Air Partners, in a statement reported by Globe Newswire. “We’re proud to continue building with Blue Owl’s funds and deepen our alignment through a dedicated vehicle targeting opportunities in the mid-life aviation market.”
The joint venture builds on a history of collaboration between Crestone and Blue Owl. Since 2020, the two firms have jointly invested hundreds of millions of dollars in aviation assets, including the successful deployment of Contrail JV II and affiliated sidecar vehicles. Ivan Zinn, Head of Alternative Credit at Blue Owl, emphasized the strength of this partnership: “This joint venture builds on years of successful partnership between Blue Owl’s Alternative Credit funds and Crestone. We’re excited to continue supporting the platform with a further investment of strategic capital.”
Crestone’s approach is bolstered by Air T’s integrated operating platform, which spans everything from maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) to parts sales, storage, disassembly, and leasing services. This gives the joint venture a unique edge in managing mature-phase aircraft and responding flexibly to the needs of airlines operating in a fast-evolving market. The legal and financial underpinnings of the joint venture were supported by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP as legal counsel, KPMG LLP as tax advisor, and Phoenix American Financial Services, Inc. as third-party administrator.
While Blue Owl’s aviation ambitions are expanding, its influence is also being felt in the technology sector. Just three days before the Crestone deal, Reuters reported that Meta (formerly Facebook) had tapped PIMCO and Blue Owl Capital to lead a $29 billion financing for a massive data center expansion in rural Louisiana. PIMCO, the U.S. bond giant, will handle approximately $26 billion of the debt—likely to be issued in the form of bonds—while Blue Owl will contribute $3 billion in equity. The financing is part of Meta’s aggressive push to build out its artificial intelligence infrastructure, a move that CEO Mark Zuckerberg described in July as requiring "hundreds of billions of dollars" to construct several massive AI data centers for the company’s superintelligence unit.
The first of these facilities, a multi-gigawatt data center named Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026. Another, called Hyperion, is projected to scale up to 5 GW over the coming years, according to Zuckerberg’s recent post on Threads. The scale of these projects underscores Meta’s determination to remain at the forefront of the generative AI race, which has already sparked intense competition for top engineering talent and prompted new models of capital raising and asset management.
In fact, Meta has been exploring creative financial strategies to share the immense costs associated with building out its AI infrastructure. Last week, the company revealed in a regulatory filing that it planned to offload about $2 billion in data center assets as part of a co-development strategy. This approach is intended to attract private capital, reduce upfront expenditures, and accelerate the rollout of next-generation AI facilities. As reported by the Financial Times in June, Meta is still debating the precise structure of its debt raise and is considering further capital injections to support its long-term ambitions.
The Louisiana deal is the latest—and perhaps most ambitious—example of this strategy. While Meta, PIMCO, and Blue Owl declined to comment on the specifics, sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters that Morgan Stanley played a key role in arranging the financing, and that other private equity heavyweights, such as Apollo Global Management and KKR, were contenders until the closing stages. The partnership with Blue Owl is seen as a vote of confidence in the asset manager’s ability to navigate complex, large-scale investments and deliver value both to institutional investors and to the companies it supports.
Blue Owl’s dual role in these landmark deals is emblematic of a broader trend in alternative asset management. As traditional sources of capital become more selective and the demands of technological and industrial transformation grow, firms like Blue Owl are increasingly called upon to provide flexible, innovative solutions. The company’s three multi-strategy platforms—Credit, Real Assets, and GP Strategic Capital—allow it to tailor investments to the unique needs of each sector, whether that means acquiring aging aircraft for global leasing or underwriting the infrastructure of tomorrow’s digital economy.
For Crestone Air Partners, the launch of Blue Crest Aviation Partners signals a new era of growth and sophistication. The joint venture not only expands the company’s access to capital but also deepens its ties with a global leader in alternative credit. With Air T’s backing and Blue Owl’s financial muscle, Crestone is well-positioned to seize opportunities in the mid-life aviation market, even as uncertainties linger about travel demand and the pace of fleet renewals.
Meanwhile, Meta’s partnership with Blue Owl and PIMCO could reshape the financing landscape for AI infrastructure. By tapping private capital at unprecedented scale, Meta aims to keep pace with rivals in the generative AI arms race, while spreading risk and accelerating development timelines. The ultimate success of these ventures will depend on execution, market conditions, and the willingness of investors to back bold, long-term visions in both the skies and the server rooms of the future.
As Blue Owl Capital continues to extend its reach across industries, its latest moves underscore the growing power and influence of alternative asset managers in shaping the next chapter of global business and technology.
