AIP, MGX & GIP buy Aligned Data Centres for USD $40bn

AIP, MGX and BlackRock's GIP have completed the acquisition of Aligned Data Centres in a deal that values the company at about USD $40 billion.

The consortium bought 100% of Aligned's equity from private infrastructure funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management and its co-investment partners. The closing also includes a commitment of an additional USD $5 billion in growth capital to support Aligned's expansion.

The transaction is among the largest private investments in digital infrastructure, underscoring investor demand for data centre assets as artificial intelligence drives a sharp rise in computing and power needs. It is also the first investment for AIP, which was set up to mobilise large pools of capital for AI infrastructure.

Aligned will continue to be led by Chief Executive Officer Andrew Schaap and the existing management team, and will remain headquartered in Dallas.

The company's footprint spans 51 campuses with more than 6.4GW of operational and planned capacity. Those assets are concentrated in major US digital gateway markets, including Northern Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, Ohio, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, as well as São Paulo, Querétaro and Santiago.

The acquisition highlights how infrastructure investors are seeking exposure to the data centre market, where demand has surged as cloud groups and AI developers look for more space, electricity and cooling. Aligned has become one of the larger developers in the sector, giving the consortium an established platform in markets where land, grid access and construction capacity are increasingly contested.

Growth plans

The additional USD $5 billion capital commitment is intended to support further build-out of what Aligned describes as AI-ready capacity. The funding comes on top of the equity value attached to the acquisition and signals that the new owners expect substantial spending to continue as customers seek denser computing deployments.

AIP called the deal an important step toward its initial target of mobilising and deploying USD $30 billion of equity capital, with the potential to support up to USD $100 billion of total investment including debt. The transaction therefore sits at the centre of a broader effort to channel institutional and strategic capital into the physical infrastructure underpinning AI systems.

MGX is a technology investment company focused on AI and advanced technologies, while GIP is BlackRock's infrastructure investing arm. Their participation alongside AIP brings together investors with interests in both digital infrastructure and the broader energy and technology systems needed to support large computing clusters.

Data centre demand

Data centres have become one of the most sought-after areas in private markets over the past two years, as investors respond to expectations that AI workloads will require far more specialised facilities than conventional enterprise computing. Operators that already control large land banks and development pipelines in major network markets have drawn particular attention.

Aligned's portfolio gives the consortium access to sites in several of the most established US hubs for data centre development. Northern Virginia remains the world's largest concentration of data centre capacity, while Dallas, Phoenix and Chicago have all attracted strong leasing activity from cloud and enterprise customers. Expansion in Latin American markets also broadens the company's reach beyond the US.

Aligned has also sought to distinguish itself through cooling technology designed to reduce water use and improve energy efficiency. In a market where resource constraints and community scrutiny are becoming more prominent, those features have become more important to operators seeking planning approvals and utility relationships.

The new owners said Aligned would continue to focus on local job creation, workforce development, redevelopment of industrial sites, broader tax bases and grid resilience in the areas where it operates. Those priorities reflect a wider effort across the sector to demonstrate economic benefits to host communities as concerns mount over land use, electricity demand and environmental impact.

For Macquarie Asset Management and its co-investment partners, the sale marks an exit from a large digital infrastructure holding at a valuation that reflects the strong repricing of the data centre sector. For the buyers, it provides immediate scale in a market where assembling new portfolios from scratch can be slower and more expensive.

The consortium described the closing as the deployment of one of the largest private investments ever made in digital infrastructure.