{"id":210609,"date":"2025-10-13T20:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T20:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/210609\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T20:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T20:02:07","slug":"brookfield-to-invest-5-billion-with-bloom-energy-to-power-ai-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/210609\/","title":{"rendered":"Brookfield to invest $5-billion with Bloom Energy to power AI data centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM-T<\/a> has agreed to invest up to US$5-billion to deploy fuel cells built by Silicon Valley-based Bloom Energy BE-N<\/a> as a way to power data centres geared to the latest artificial intelligence<\/a> technologies.<\/p>\n

Brookfield and Bloom Energy said the partnership announced Monday is the first phase of a plan to build \u201cAI factories\u201d that can meet rapidly escalating demand for computing power, facilities and energy needed to run the most advanced AI models. <\/p>\n

The two companies expect to announce plans later this year for a facility they are designing together in Europe, and to eventually use fuel cells as a power source in AI factories around the world. <\/p>\n

Brookfield Asset Management to streamline structure by combining two entities<\/a><\/p>\n

Fuel cells use a chemical reaction involving hydrogen to generate clean energy with low emissions. They can be set up on site and run for years, without needing access to existing power grids, some of which need to be upgraded to handle the added strain that massive new AI systems will put on public power distribution networks.<\/p>\n

Current projections suggest the demand for electricity to power AI factories will outstrip what could be added to public power grids in their current form. <\/p>\n

On-site power solutions such as Bloom Energy\u2019s fuel cells \u201care essential to closing the grid gap for AI factories,\u201d said Sikander Rashid, global head of AI infrastructure at Brookfield, in a statement. \u201cThis partnership adds a powerful new tool to our global growth strategy, especially in a grid-constrained market environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal with Bloom Energy is Brookfield\u2019s first investment in a new AI infrastructure strategy that will raise a dedicated fund to invest in the burgeoning sector. Brookfield has plans to invest US$200-billion in what it calls \u201cAI factories\u201d in North America, Europe and Britain over several years, and chief executive officer Bruce Flatt has said that is likely \u201cjust the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the largest tech companies ramp up their demand for data centres, Brookfield is looking to provide the real estate, infrastructure and renewable power needed to handle wider adoption of sophisticated AI models. <\/p>\n

Last month, Brookfield struck a partnership with California-based Figure AI Inc. to help train and develop humanoid robots<\/a> that are intended to work in homes and businesses. <\/p>\n

Bloom Energy\u2019s fuel cells provide hundreds of megawatts of electricity to run data centres owned by major companies such as database software company Oracle Corp. as well as Equinix Inc., which runs data centres in Canada<\/a> and has as US$15-billion joint venture with the country\u2019s largest pension fund, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, known as CPP Investments. <\/p>\n

Brookfield\u2019s $20-billion transition fund shows investor confidence in clean energy remains strong<\/a><\/p>\n

Brookfield also announced Monday that it is spending US$3-billion to buy out the 26-per-cent stake in credit manager Oaktree Capital Group LLC OAK-N<\/a> that it did not already own. Brookfield bought 62 per cent of Oaktree<\/a> in 2019 as a cornerstone investment in its credit business, and gradually increased its ownership stake since then.<\/p>\n

Oaktree shareholders will be able to choose whether to be paid in cash, shares in Brookfield Asset Management or, with some limitations, in its parent company Brookfield Corp. BN-T<\/a> If shareholders choose to take Brookfield shares, they will be subject to a lock-up period of two or five years. <\/p>\n

Brookfield plans to buy back the same number of shares taken up by Oaktree shareholders to prevent the deal from diluting the stakes owned by existing investors. <\/p>\n

Oaktree co-chairmen Howard Marks and Bruce Karsh are expected to stay involved in the business, serving on Brookfield boards of directors. The co-CEOs of Oaktree, Robert O\u2019Leary and Armen Panossian, will be named co-CEOs of Brookfield\u2019s US$332-billion credit business, along with current CEO Craig Noble. <\/p>\n

Mr. Flatt said in a statement that Oaktree\u2019s assets under management have increased by 75 per cent since Brookfield acquired control of the business, and the results of the initial deal \u201chave surpassed our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM-T has agreed to invest up to US$5-billion to deploy fuel cells built by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,901,276,277,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-210609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-alberta","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}