BlackRock, Nvidia-backed group strike $40-bn AI data centre deal

AN INVESTOR GROUP, including BlackRock and Nvidia, will buy Aligned Data Centres from Macquarie Asset Management in a deal worth $40 billion, the companies said on Wednesday, as Al infrastructure expansion powers on.

- ARSHEEYA BAJWA & ADITYA SONI

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 US 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.