BlackRock-led consortium adds $5 billion to Aligned Data Centers

A BlackRock-backed consortium closed the $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers and committed $5 billion more for expansion.

The $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers closed Tuesday, with the buyer group committing an additional $5 billion to expand one of the world's largest data center operators as AI demand strains available capacity.

"This is the largest private investment in digital infrastructure to date," the consortium said in a statement. The group includes the AI Infrastructure Partnership, MGX and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners.

Aligned operates 51 data center campuses with more than 6.4 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity globally. To put that in context, 6.4 GW is enough to power roughly 5 million US homes. Its facilities are concentrated in major US digital gateway regions including Northern Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, Ohio, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, as well as São Paulo, Querétaro and Santiago. The company holds over 50 patents for water- and energy-saving cooling technology that reduces water usage and improves power efficiency, a key differentiator as regulators scrutinize data centers' environmental impact.

The deal shows the enormous capital requirements of AI infrastructure. AIP, the investment vehicle formed for this strategy, aims to deploy $30 billion in equity with the potential to support $100 billion in total investment including debt. The consortium includes MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based technology investment company, and BlackRock's GIP, which manages over $200 billion in assets. The transaction is AIP's first investment since its formation.

Aligned was founded in 2013 and acquired from Macquarie Asset Management and its co-invest partners. Andrew Schaap, who has led the company since 2017, will remain chief executive officer. The company will keep its headquarters in Dallas. The additional $5 billion in growth capital will fund the expansion of AI-ready capacity across Aligned's portfolio, which serves hyperscalers and cloud computing companies. Aligned does not disclose its specific customer names, but its facilities support the high-density computing requirements of AI training and inference workloads.

The deal positions Aligned to compete with other large data center developers such as Equinix, Digital Realty and CyrusOne, which are also racing to add capacity for AI workloads. Equinix, the largest data center REIT by revenue, reported $8.7 billion in revenue in 2025, while Digital Realty operates more than 300 facilities globally. Aligned's 6.4 GW of planned capacity puts it among the fastest-growing developers in the sector, though the company does not disclose its revenue or profit figures.

The broader data center industry has seen a wave of consolidation and investment as technology companies race to secure computing capacity for AI. Microsoft, Amazon and Google have each committed tens of billions of dollars to expand their cloud infrastructure, while private equity firms have targeted data center operators as long-term assets with predictable cash flows. The Aligned deal, first announced in October 2025, represents one of the largest leveraged buyouts in the technology sector.

For investors, the transaction confirms that AI infrastructure requires capital commitments on a scale previously unseen in digital infrastructure. BlackRock's backing through its $200 billion GIP platform suggests institutional confidence that could support valuations across the data center sector. Publicly traded data center REITs such as Equinix and Digital Realty, along with AI hardware suppliers including Nvidia, stand to benefit from continued capacity expansion. Nvidia's data center revenue reached $130 billion in its most recent fiscal year, driven by demand for the GPUs that power AI training and inference workloads running in facilities like Aligned's.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.