BlackRock, Nvidia, Microsoft Lead $40B AI Data Center Deal
The Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), a consortium including BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI, and Microsoft, will acquire Aligned Data Centers in a $40 billion transaction, the companies announced Wednesday. This marks AIP’s first deal as it begins deploying capital to support AI infrastructure.
The group plans to invest $30 billion in equity initially, with total funding—including debt—potentially reaching $100 billion. The acquisition underscores the strategic importance of data center capacity for AI workloads.
Aligned operates 50 campuses across the U.S. and Latin America, serving hyperscalers, enterprises, and emerging cloud providers, with over 5 gigawatts of current and planned capacity, including projects under development.
The deal follows a flurry of AI infrastructure agreements, including Nebius Group’s $17.4 billion GPU supply deal with Microsoft and CoreWeave’s $6.3 billion Nvidia server reservation.
The Aligned acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2026. Bitcoin mining firms shifting toward AI infrastructure—Hut 8 Corp (HUT), IREN (IREN), Bitfarms (BITF), and CleanSpark (CLSK)—rose 3%–6% in early trading.
