The AIP was formed to invest up to $30 billion of equity capital in AI, data centers, and energy; this is its first deal, which ranks as one of BlackRock’s largest infrastructure investments to date. If completed, it would be among the largest data center transactions on record, and regardless it underscores how Wall Street is racing to claim a stake in the AI boom.
Aligned Data Centers, which is based in Plano, Texas, was founded in 2013 to build and operate data centers for hyperscalers and cloud-computing companies. It has data centers across the U.S.—including in Northern Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, Ohio, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City—as well as in Mexico, Brazil, and Chile.
“We cannot fall behind in the need to put the infrastructure together to make this revolution happen,” Altman told reporters during a media event at OpenAI and Oracle’s flagship 800-acre Stargate data center location in Abilene, Texas, last month, where he also announced the companies will build five massive new data center complexes across the U.S. over the next several years.
