Dive Brief:
- BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, United Arab Emirates-based technology investment firm MGX and buyers under the umbrella of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership have closed an acquisition of data center developer Aligned Data Centers valued at $40 billion.
- The new buyers will purchase 100% of the equity in Aligned Data Centers, which owns over 6.4 gigawatts of operational and planned data center capacity, from Macquarie Asset Management, according to a Tuesday release.
- The deal was first announced in October, also at a $40 billion valuation. BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia, along with MGX and GIP, launched the AI Infrastructure Partnership in September 2024 with the goal of investing in next-generation AI infrastructure.
Dive Insight:
The AI Infrastructure Partnership was established to initially mobilize $30 billion to scale AI and data technology and infrastructure. The acquisition of Aligned Data Centers represents AIP’s first investment, according to a July 21 press release.
Aligned Data Centers will remain a Dallas-headquartered company led by CEO Andrew Schaap and its existing management, the release said. AIP, GIP and MGX will also provide $5 billion in additional capital for expansion. Schaap said in a LinkedIn post Tuesday that the acquisition and additional capital commitment will allow Aligned to “to move quicker and build bigger than ever before.”
“This milestone reflects the skill of our remarkable team and the strength of the platform we've built — and it stands among the largest private investments the digital infrastructure sector has ever seen … at a time when demand for what we do has never been higher,” Schaap said.
Aligned’s data center capacity is spread across 51 locations, primarily in the U.S. with others in Mexico and South America, according to its website. AIP, GIP and MGX said, in addition to capital, they will provide the company with strategic insights into AI technologies and bring experience investing in and owning “complex infrastructure at scale.
Additionally, the release said the company’s purchasers are supplying “a supportive partnership model and the long-term capital required for Aligned to scale its platform while maintaining its customer and community focus and operational independence.”
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink — who also serves as chair of the AI Infrastructure Partnership — said in the release announcing the deal last year that the investment in Aligned Data Centers will “further [the group’s] goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI, while offering our clients attractive opportunities to participate in its growth.”
Since the AI Infrastructure Partnership launched, the Elon Musk owned xAI, Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek and the Kuwait Investment Authority joined AIP as members. The group also counts Cisco as a tech partner and has agreements with GE Vernova and NextEra Energy to help scale AI data center infrastructure. The partnership has a remit to support up to $100 billion in total investments.
The acquisition comes as a new report from the Kansas Health Institute found that U.S. data centers’ electricity usage could more than double by 2030 and their water usage could “double or quadruple by 2028.” Earlier this year, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association projected that U.S. data center electricity consumption will grow 300% over the next decade and account for around 38% of the country’s net electricity consumption through 2037.
New York recently became the first state in the nation with a one-year data center moratorium, as Gov. Kathy Hochul paused all construction of hyperscale-level data centers — using 50 megawatts or more of energy – while state regulators work to develop a regulatory framework to address data centers’ environmental and community impacts.
