How Pimco outmaneuvered Apollo, KKR to win $29 billion Meta deal

Morgan Stanley had an unusual message when it approached four of the world’s biggest asset managers in July: they had progressed to the final round of one of the most sought-after private credit deals to date. But if they wanted to get to the finish line, they would need to pair up.

The bank pitted the two teams against each other for the right to give some $29 billion to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms so that it can build a sprawling data center in Louisiana to undergird the company’s most powerful artificial intelligence models.

The deal was…