Circuit of the Americas Development Updates

[ATX2030]

Carlyle’s credit unit backs Texas F1 destination’s expansion

by Sergio Barreto
August 24, 2026 in Open Access, Private Credit, Private Credit Manager News

https://www.alternativeswatch.com/2026/08/24/carlyle-credit-cota-expansion-red-bull-racing/

Carlyle‘s Global Credit platform has agreed to provide capital to Circuit of the Americas (COTA), the Austin-area Formula 1 venue, to fund a theme park, a planned water park and, longer term, an on-site resort.

The financing comes from Carlyle’s Credit Opportunities strategy, part of the firm’s Global Credit platform, which has $211 billion in assets under management as of June 30. The deal leaves COTA’s ownership untouched: its local ownership group, led by Chairman Bobby Epstein, retains full control.

Credit Opportunities specializes in structured, privately negotiated financing across the capital structure for family-, founder-, and management-owned businesses, sponsor-backed companies, and special situations. “Carlyle’s ability to deliver scaled, privately negotiated capital solutions” was the draw, said Benjamin Fund, a partner at Carlyle.

The capital will accelerate the opening of COTALAND, a 34-attraction theme park under development on the COTA campus, and fund the destination experiences planned beyond it. COTA is targeting annual visitation of up to three million by 2030, as it expands beyond visitation driven largely by race weekends.

The deal builds on a relationship Carlyle began cultivating nearly a year ago. In September 2025, the firm became the exclusive investment-management sponsor of Oracle Red Bull Racing, the Formula 1 team that now carries Carlyle branding — the first tie-up between a major global private markets firm and a Formula 1 team. “We see clear alignment with Carlyle’s approach to investing,” Laurent Mekies, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s CEO and team principal, said when Carlyle announced that partnership.

And on a personal level, supporting the sport has become something of a passion project for Carlyle Co-Founder and Co-Chairman David Rubenstein. In a March blog post, Rubenstein, who has said he was never much of a car enthusiast, wrote about attending two Formula 1 races in Abu Dhabi and being struck less by the racing than by the size of the crowds and the presence of business and government leaders trackside.

“I was blown away when I went to my second Formula 1 race,” he wrote. Rubenstein described the Red Bull Racing sponsorship as Carlyle’s first major global sports partnership and framed it as a bet on sports and entertainment platforms with fast-growing global audiences. The COTA financing reflects a similar thesis, but with Carlyle providing capital directly to a venue rather than backing a marketing partnership.

The credit structure sets the COTA transaction apart from how many rivals have approached sports investing, typically through equity stakes in leagues, teams and venues rather than privately negotiated credit.