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An investment consortium that includes BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Abu Dhabi fund MGX has struck a $40bn takeover of one of the world’s largest data centre operators, as it launches an initiative to underwrite the infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
The investment consortium, which also includes Nvidia, Microsoft and xAI, will acquire Texas-based Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management, in its first deal since the partnership was formed a year ago.
The investment group will utilise a $100bn data centre capital pool they created, called the AI Infrastructure Partnership, to combine the capabilities of large tech players and specialised investment groups.
The partnership is securing the capital and high-performance semiconductors, industrial materials and energy needed to quickly build data centres as the demand for the computing power needed for AI algorithms outstrips existing capacity.
The consortium’s backers also include Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek and the Kuwait Investment Authority. Large suppliers to data centre manufacturers such as GE Vernova, utility NextEra Energy and Cisco are also members.
The partnership is hoping a combination of large investment dollars and the specialised technological skills of its members can help alleviate a scarcity of land, energy and materials needed to build large data centres for OpenAI, Google, Meta Platforms and others.
The investment group has earmarked $30bn in equity and a further $70bn in debt financing to buy and build data centre companies. Its planned takeover of Aligned Data Centers is the first in what could be a series of large acquisitions and construction projects in the sector.
The consortium plans to expand Aligned quickly in the coming years, more than doubling its 50 data centre campuses in the US and Latin America.
“Together, we can address critical questions: how to design the right data centres, how to solve water and energy challenges, and how to respond to customers’ needs. That’s what’s unique about the partnership — it hasn’t been replicated anywhere else,” Adebayo Ogunlesi, chief executive of BlackRock affiliate GIP, said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, told the FT the data centre partnership planned to build and lease highly specialised data centres to large technology companies, instead of such customers building the properties themselves. These projects, ultimately financed by pensioners and sovereign wealth funds, will allow tech giants to keep data centres off their balance sheets, helping them command higher stock valuations.
The BlackRock founder also said Wednesday’s deal was evidence of the benefits of its large acquisitions in private capital such as its $12.5bn takeover of GIP last year. “To me, this is a perfect marriage of Abu Dhabi’s ecosystem and its commitment to AI, combined with the strength of BlackRock and GIP,” Fink said.
Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi, chief executive of MGX, said the partnership could ultimately supply significant new data centre capacity going online in the coming years.
“We very much believe that the requirements for global capacity build-out — both from a cloud and AI perspective — are massive. We’re talking about roughly 20 gigawatts a year globally, and about half of that would be in the U.S,” he said.