{"id":215228,"date":"2025-10-15T16:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/215228\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:48:08","slug":"ai-consortium-backed-by-blackrock-nvidia-to-buy-aligned-data-centers-for-40-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/215228\/","title":{"rendered":"AI consortium backed by BlackRock, Nvidia to buy Aligned Data Centers for $40-billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">An investment consortium that includes BlackRock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/markets\/stocks\/BLK-N\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/markets\/stocks\/BLK-N\/\">BLK-N<\/a>, Nvidia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/markets\/stocks\/NVDA-Q\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/markets\/stocks\/NVDA-Q\/\">NVDA-Q<\/a>, xAI and Microsoft <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/markets\/stocks\/MSFT-Q\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/markets\/stocks\/MSFT-Q\/\">MSFT-Q<\/a> will acquire Aligned Data Centers in a deal worth $40 billion, the companies said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The deal underscores an intensifying race to expand the costly, supply-constrained infrastructure required to power <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/topics\/artificial-intelligence\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/topics\/artificial-intelligence\/\">artificial intelligence<\/a> technology, as companies rush to build the most sophisticated AI models.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The acquisition follows a slew of megadeals focused on securing coveted compute capacity. ChatGPT creator OpenAI has in recent weeks unveiled agreements totalling about 26 gigawatts of computing capacity, enough to power roughly 20 million U.S. homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The investment consortium, dubbed the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), has an initial target of deploying US$30-billion of equity capital, with the potential of reaching US$100-billion, including debt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text mv-16 l-inset text-pb-8\" data-sophi-feature=\"interstitial\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/article-investors-on-guard-for-risks-that-could-derail-the-ai-gravy-train\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Investors on guard for risks that could derail the AI gravy train<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">This is AIP\u2019s first investment. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cWith this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we further our goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI,\u201d said Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock and chairman of AIP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">AIP\u2019s anchor investors also include the Kuwait Investment Authority and Singapore\u2019s state-owned investor Temasek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Aligned designs, builds and operates data centres for the hyperscalers, neocloud and enterprises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Its portfolio includes 50 campuses and more than 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity, including assets under development, located across the U.S. and Latin America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Aligned will remain headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and will be led by CEO Andrew Schaap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">OpenAI last week unveiled a 6-gigawatt AI chip <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-amd-openai-chip-deal\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-amd-openai-chip-deal\/\">supply deal with AMD<\/a> that includes an option to buy a stake in the chip maker, days after disclosing that Nvidia plans to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-nvidia-to-invest-100-billion-in-openai\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-nvidia-to-invest-100-billion-in-openai\/\">invest up to US$100-billion<\/a> in the startup and provide it with data centre systems with at least 10 gigawatts of capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investment consortium that includes BlackRock BLK-N, Nvidia NVDA-Q, xAI and Microsoft MSFT-Q will acquire Aligned Data Centers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215229,"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-215228","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\/215228","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=215228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}