Dec 31 (Reuters) – Brookfield is starting its own cloud business to lease chips inside data centers directly to artificial intelligence developers, The Information reported on Wednesday, in a bid to gain end-to-end control of the AI value chain.
The cloud business will be tied to a new $10 billion AI fund that the firm is starting and a cloud company called Radiant that Brookfield will operate, the report added.
Radiant will have priority to lease any data centers developed under the fund, the report said, citing a person with direct knowledge of the firm’s strategy. The fund is developing data center projects in France, Qatar and Sweden.
In November, Brookfield launched a $100 billion AI infrastructure program, anchored by the Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, with half of the fund’s $10 billion commitments target fulfilled by a group of institutional and industry partners, including tech bellwether Nvidia and the Kuwait Investment Authority.
Brookfield did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The move underscores growing unease in the markets about industrial constraints to the burgeoning AI-linked capital expenditures, which have drawn criticism for the pressure they would add to public utilities.
Combined with Brookfield’s energy and real estate-heavy portfolio, a cloud business would allow the company to control inputs of the AI value chain in a way inaccessible to pure-play cloud providers.
Traditional cloud giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle, already facing heat to churn returns on their capex, could also be pressured further to optimize energy logistics and capital efficiency.
(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)