From CNBC, September 17:
- The Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership is initially looking to raise $30 billion for new and existing data centers.
- The fundraising, which could total $100 billion, will also be used to invest in the energy infrastructure needed to power AI workloads.
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the initiative brings “together financial and industry leaders to build the infrastructure of the future and power it in a sustainable way.”
Microsoft and BlackRock are part of a group of companies collaborating to pull together up to $100 billion to develop data centers for artificial intelligence and the energy infrastructure to power them.
The companies are part of the Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership, or GAIIP, which was announced in a press release on Tuesday. The other participants are Global Infrastructure Partners, or GIP, an infrastructure investor that is being acquired by BlackRock, and MGX, a tech investor in the United Arab Emirates.
“We are committed to ensuring AI helps advance innovation and drives growth across every sector of the economy,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in a statement. He said the initiative brings “together financial and industry leaders to build the infrastructure of the future and power it in a sustainable way.”
The group aims to assemble $30 billion of initial capital, with a future goal of bringing in up to $100 billion, including from debt financing.
Tech companies have been racing to build data centers full of Nvidia graphics processing units, or GPUs, that can run generative AI models such as those enabling OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. Those GPUs consume serious power, and soaring demand has created a bottleneck for standing up new facilities....
....MUCH MORE
Possibly also of interest, the infrastructure series:
February 23 = The Infrastructure Theme Is For Real (PWR)
January 31:"KKR raises $6.4 bln for its Asian infrastructure fund" (KKR)
January 8 "East
Coast land continues to collapse at a worrying rate It's steadily
sinking or subsiding, which is destabilizing levees, roads, and
airports."
January 8: "There’s a Shortage of Electrical Wires, Transformers. That’s Good for These Stocks."
January 12: (Big) Batteries: "‘World leading' Tesla battery online to help kick coal out of Hawaii" (TSLA)
January 12: BlackRock Goes Large-by-Large In Infrastructure (BLK)"
January 15: "Investors look set to pour cash into infrastructure following BlackRock acquisition" (BLK)
January 16: "BlackRock Acquisition Triples Its Business of Building Airports, Roads, and Utilities"
I'm
telling ya, this is a big deal. Not just for the $12.5 billion purchase
price but for the $100+ billion in assets that GIP manages.
January 23: Minerals-for-Infrastructure: "Congo and China Talking $7 Billion In Finance, Tshisekedi Says"
January 23: DEI and ESG Live On, We Just Won't Talk About Them (BLK)
That's one lesson from BlackRock's purchase of Global Infrastructure Partners.
January 29: RAND: "The U.S. Must Close the Long-Distance Power Transmission Gap with China" Or, as the Financial Times put it, a bit more succinctly, February 1, 2024:
KKR has raised a record $6.4bn for its latest Asian infrastructure fund, capping a month of frenzied investment activity in the sector at a time when broader private equity fundraising has slowed.
—KKR raises record $6.4bn for Asia fund in infrastructure rush
Related, December 4, 2023:
Russell Napier Called It: "The Eyepopping Factory Construction Boom in the US"
And possibly most important:
March 18 - In Nvidia's World, If You (and your company) Don't Have Money You Will Not Be Able To Compete (NVDA)