Microsoft, BlackRock to Launch $30 Billion Fund to Invest in Data Centers, Power for AI
Microsoft and BlackRock said Tuesday they are planning a $30 billion fund to develop data centers and power plants to power artificial intelligence. The fund would be one of the largest of its kind, though it isn’t clear how much Microsoft is contributing and shows how the company is enlisting another longtime real estate and data center investor, BlackRock, rather than go it alone as AI costs stack up.
Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX will also invest in the fund, and Nvidia will consult on the design of data centers built by the fund or the companies it backs, Microsoft and BlackRock said. (MGX has also been in talks to participate in OpenAI’s capital raise of up to $7 billion.)
The new fund, dubbed the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, will ultimately look to raise as much as $100 billion, including debt financing, and will “chiefly” invest in infrastructure located within the U.S., the companies said. The data centers will be “non-exclusive” and serve “a diverse range” of customers, the companies said.
The fund is the latest sign of Microsoft’s interest in new data centers and power sources needed to train and run large-scale AI models, such as those developed by OpenAI. Microsoft has already projected that it will spend more than $50 billion this year on capital expenditures, primarily for building data centers, and has discussed building a supercomputing data-center server cluster for OpenAI that could cost more than $100 billion. Numerous large AI data centers are under way in the continental U.S., according to the AI Data Center Database.