BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, Microsoft, MGX launch AI partnership

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BlackRock , Microsoft and United Arab Emirates state-backed investor MGX are partnering on a new artificial-intelligence infrastructure fund that aims to raise $30 billion to invest in data centers and related power infrastructure. After raising the private-equity capital from investors, the partnership could deploy up to $100 billion in total capital when including debt financing, the parties said Tuesday.

Most of the infrastructure investments will be made in the U.S. The systems powering new AI products are highly energy intensive. The recent frenzy to build data centers to serve the exploding demand for AI is causing a shortage of the parts, property and power that the sprawling warehouses of supercomputers require.

Microsoft and other big tech players have been investing billions in their own data centers. The new partnership—dubbed the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership—will pool capital from investors like pension funds and insurance companies that seek steady, modest returns from private infrastructure investments. It will finance projects across the AI infrastructure ecosystem, including energy infrastructure.

By 2030, data centers alone could increase U.S. power demand by 8% , researchers say. The goal is to finance some of the capital intensive infrastructure needs with money from outside the tech sector, BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink said in an interview.