BlackRock, Nvidia, Microsoft Back $40B AI Data Center Acquisition
The newly formed Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), comprising BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI, Microsoft, and other investors, will acquire Aligned Data Centers in a $40 billion deal, the companies announced Wednesday. This marks AIP’s first transaction as it begins building out a massive AI infrastructure portfolio.
The consortium plans to deploy $30 billion in equity initially, with total investment—including debt—potentially reaching $100 billion. The acquisition highlights the strategic role of data centers in supporting the next wave of AI development.
Aligned designs and operates data centers for hyperscalers, enterprise clients, and emerging cloud providers. It manages 50 campuses across the U.S. and Latin America, with more than 5 gigawatts of current and planned capacity, including facilities still under construction.
The deal comes amid an industry-wide scramble for AI compute. Last month, Nebius Group inked a five-year, $17.4 billion GPU supply agreement with Microsoft, while CoreWeave secured $6.3 billion in Nvidia server capacity.
The Aligned acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2026. Bitcoin mining firms pivoting toward AI infrastructure, including Hut 8 Corp (HUT), IREN (IREN), Bitfarms (BITF), and CleanSpark (CLSK), rose 3%–6% in early trading.
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