BlackRock, Nvidia Lead $40 Billion Aligned Data Centers Acquisition to Power AI Infrastructure Boom

• BlackRock and Nvidia are leading a $40 billion deal for an aligned data center.

• The group plans to deploy $30 billion in equity initially, with the potential to scale to $100 billion, including debt.

BlackRock and Nvidia Lead $40 Billion Aligned Data Centers Deal

In a significant development, BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI, Microsoft, and sovereign wealth funds from Kuwait and Singapore are acquiring Aligned Data Centers. The acquisition from Macquarie Asset Management is part of a deal valued at $40 billion.

The latest move underscores the fierce global race to expand the infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence.

The group, dubbed the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), plans to deploy $30 billion in equity initially, with the potential to scale to $100 billion including debt. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, marking AIP’s first significant investment.

AI Infrastructure Race Heats Up

The acquisition comes amid a surge of mega-deals aimed at securing scarce compute capacity for developing advanced AI models. OpenAI recently signed agreements totaling around 26 gigawatts of computing capacity, roughly equivalent to the power consumption of 20 million U.S. homes.

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock and chairman of AIP, said the deal “further[s] our goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI.” This move aligns with a broader investment wave targeting the data center and semiconductor sectors to support AI development at scale.

Aligned’s Expanding Footprint

Aligned Data Centers specializes in designing, building, and operating data centers for hyperscalers, neocloud providers, and enterprises. Its portfolio spans 50 campuses with more than 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity across the U.S. and Latin America.

The company will remain headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and will continue under the leadership of CEO Andrew Schaap. Earlier this year, Aligned raised $12 billion in one of the most significant private capital infusions for a data center operator, a signal of the sector’s escalating capital requirements.

Unprecedented Investment Scale

Expanding AI infrastructure is a capital-intensive race attracting hundreds of billions of dollars from Big Tech, private equity, infrastructure funds, and startups.

OpenAI announced a 6-gigawatt AI chip supply deal with AMD, which includes an option to acquire a stake in the chipmaker.

Nvidia is reportedly planning to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and provide data center systems with at least 10 gigawatts of capacity. Morgan Stanley estimates that major cloud providers like Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Coreweave will spend about $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year alone.

Strategic Implications

While some investors remain cautious about the near-term returns from these massive capital deployments, major tech companies have made clear they are prepared to keep spending aggressively. The AI ecosystem has become increasingly interconnected, with companies like Nvidia acting as both key investors and dominant suppliers, controlling much of the GPU market critical for AI workloads.

The Aligned Data Centers acquisition marks a defining moment in this race, consolidating investor power behind a single massive infrastructure play designed to meet the soaring global demand for AI computing.