BlackRock, Nvidia-backed group strikes $40 billion AI data center deal

(Reuters) -An investor group, including BlackRock and Nvidia, will buy Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management in a deal worth $40 billion, the companies said on Wednesday, as AI infrastructure expansion powers on. The deal underscores an intensifying race to expand the costly, supply-constrained infrastructure required to develop artificial intelligence technology, as companies rush to build sophisticated AI models. The acquisition follows a slew of mega-deals focused on securing coveted compute capacity. ChatGPT creator OpenAI has in recent weeks unveiled agreements totaling about 26 gigawatts of computing capacity, enough to power roughly 20 million U.S. homes. The investment consortium, dubbed the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), has an initial target of deploying $30 billion of equity capital, with the potential of reaching $100 billion, including debt. This is AIP's first investment, and the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026. "With this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we further our goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI," said Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock and chairman of AIP. AIP also includes xAI and Microsoft, along with the Kuwait Investment Authority and Singapore's state-owned investor Temasek as anchor investors Aligned designs, builds and operates data centers for hyperscalers, neoclouds and enterprises. Its portfolio includes 50 campuses and more than 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity, including assets under development, located across the U.S. and Latin America. Aligned will remain headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and will be led by CEO Andrew Schaap. HEFTY INVESTMENTS Aligned's $12 billion fundraising earlier this year was one of the largest private capital injections into a data center company. But the scale of financing required to keep pace with demand is only growing. The capital-intensive undertaking of expanding AI infrastructure has attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in investment from big tech companies, startups, private equity and infrastructure funds. OpenAI last week unveiled a 6-gigawatt AI chip supply deal with AMD that includes an option to buy a stake in the chipmaker, days after disclosing that Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in the startup and provide it with data center systems with at least 10 gigawatts of capacity. Morgan Stanley estimates big cloud companies, including Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta, Microsoft and Coreweave, are on track to spend $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year. Despite investor concerns about returns from these hefty investments, Big Tech has pledged to spend more on boosting data center capacity. Also, a recent spike in interconnected investments in the AI industry has raised questions over the circularity of the market. Nvidia, one of the key investors in recent AI deals, is also one of the biggest suppliers to the market, dominating the graphics processor industry. (Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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