Temasek, Nvidia part of group buying data centre operator in record $51.8b deal

An investor group including Singapore’s Temasek, BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia is buying one of the world’s biggest data centre operators with nearly 80 facilities in a deal worth US$40 billion (S$51.8 billion) to secure coveted computing capacity for artificial intelligence (AI).

- 

The deal is the biggest-ever data centre transaction as companies race to lock in Al computing power.

Aligned Data Centers, based in Texas, currently has 50 campuses in the US and South America. It has 78 data centres under management or in future development, according to its website.

Its purchase from Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management on Oct 15 is also the first deal for the AI Infrastructure Partnership, formed in 2024. The partnership includes Temasek, the Kuwait Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi-based fund MGX and Mr Elon Musk's startup xAI among its backers.

"With this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we further our goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI," said BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink, who also serves as the chairman of the Al Infrastructure Partnership.

The acquisition is the latest in a series of big-ticket deals involving big tech and Silicon Valley startups, which the boom in AI has fuelled.