A group of investors formed by BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia announced the purchase of one of the largest data center operators in the world, with almost 80 units, in an agreement valued at US$40 billion to guarantee computing capacity for artificial intelligence applications.
The purchase of Aligned Data Centers, based in the USA, from Australian Macquarie Asset Management this Wednesday (15) is the first agreement of the AI Infrastructure Partnership formed last year, which also includes the MGX fund, based in Abu Dhabi, and Elon Musk’s startup xAI, among its backers.
“With this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we further our goal of providing the infrastructure needed to power the future of AI,” said BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink, who also serves as chairman of the AI Infrastructure Partnership.
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Chips and infrastructure
The acquisition is the latest in a series of big deals from Silicon Valley technology companies and startups driven by the AI boom.
Big tech companies including Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta, Microsoft and CoreWeave are on track to spend $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year, Morgan Stanley estimates.
OpenAI, the startup at the center of the AI boom, has struck deals in recent weeks with chipmakers Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom that could cost more than $1 trillion to secure about 26 gigawatts of computing capacity, enough energy to power about 20 million U.S. homes.
Meta is building several multi-gigawatt AI data centers, including one called Prometheus, which is expected to come online in 2026, and another, Hyperion, which can scale up to 5 gigawatts.
Aligned Data Centers currently has more than 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity, located across 50 campuses across the US and Latin America.
Joe Tigay, portfolio manager at Nvidia shareholder Equity Armor Investments, said the acquisition highlights the growing value of data center assets for investors.
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“They are looking to rapidly expand to meet AI demand and optimize for it.”
Increased spending
Aligned has been a big winner of the AI infrastructure spending boom, raising $12 billion in equity and debt issuance earlier this year in one of the largest injections of private capital into a data center company.
Shares of its rivals, such as Applied Digital, have more than quadrupled this year.
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The investment group buying Aligned also includes the Kuwait Investment Authority and Singapore state investor Temasek as anchor investors.
The initial goal is to invest US$30 billion in equity, with the potential to reach US$100 billion, including debt.
The company did not disclose how much each partner contributed to the contribution nor the equity value of the deal announced this Wednesday.
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Nvidia and Aligned declined to comment, while investors did not immediately respond to requests for more details about the transaction.
