Blackstone is the investment firm trying to buy PNM. A Blackstone slide deck is in the state’s PNM case file. It says New Mexico “has potential to be a prime QTS data center market.” QTS is Blackstone’s data center company.
The slide is page 20 of a Blackstone deck called “Project Coyote.” The deck is dated March 2025. It went into case 25-00060-UT on April 20, 2026. It came in as an exhibit to testimony by Bruce Throne. He spoke for New Energy Economy and the Center for Biological Diversity. Both groups oppose the sale. The American Prospect first reported on Blackstone slides about QTS and New Mexico in February.
What the slide says
The slide gives three reasons New Mexico fits. The first is “demonstrated hyperscaler interest.” The next is “access to clean power at scale.” The last is “low-cost land availability.”
The slide says QTS has no presence in New Mexico today. But in the past, it says, QTS built a “land bank” near the utilities of BIP’s companies after BIP put money into them. BIP is Blackstone Infrastructure Partners. It is the Blackstone group behind the PNM bid. A land bank is land held for building later.
Two charts sit under that line. They are titled “NIPSCO Service Territory” and “First Energy Service Territory.” The numbers in them are blacked out. Notes on the slide give dates. Blackstone bought into NIPSCO in December 2023. It bought into FirstEnergy in December 2021. NIPSCO is the Indiana utility in Part 5 of this series.
What Blackstone and PNM say
Blackstone spokesperson Paula Chirhart wrote to the Daily Lobo. She said Blackstone Infrastructure and its subsidiaries have no data centers in New Mexico. Nor are any “in the queue.”
A TXNM spokesperson, Lisa Goodman, said PNM treats data center builders the same as any other customer. “We do not get to choose who our customers are,” she said.
The same filing holds a February 2026 deposition of Joseph Don Tarry. He testified for PNM and TXNM. A lawyer asked him about this slide. He said any data center can come here without the utility. If QTS asked for service, he said, “we would have an obligation to look at it.”
PNM has a data center customer too. It has a special contract to serve Meta’s data center in its area.
Federal regulators heard the same worry. They approved the deal on Feb. 20. TXNM’s latest filing says they turned down claims. The claims were about data centers and private equity ownership. It also turned down claims of “speculative cross-subsidization.”
The state decision is paused
The PRC has the final word. It has not given it yet. In 2025 a Blackstone affiliate bought $400 million of TXNM stock. On July 2 the PRC largely agreed with its hearing examiners. They found the purchase broke the state’s Public Utility Act. It needed the PRC’s approval first. The PRC fined TXNM $100,000. It also put the schedule for the sale on hold. TXNM cancelled the shares to undo the purchase. Part 2 of this series covers the ruling.
On July 17, TXNM and Blackstone’s buying company each gave up a right. It was the right to end the deal for missing its closing date before May 31, 2027. TXNM also cut a fee that Blackstone’s buyer could owe it if the deal fails. The fee went from $350 million to $175 million. A PNM spokesperson told the Daily Lobo the cut reflects the delays in the approval timeline.
The case has moved since. TXNM’s filings page lists a Sept. 28 report on a stock sale TXNM completed under a state order. It also lists an order that set a status conference for Oct. 13. The Ledger found no order after that one.
Have your say
You can send the PRC a public comment on the sale. Use the Ledger’s Tell the PRC page. The PRC takes written comments under case 25-00060-UT.
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