AI Infrastructure Partnership (BlackRock GIP and MGX) → Aligned Data Centers
The largest data-centre acquisition to date: a consortium of the AI Infrastructure Partnership, Abu Dhabi's MGX and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners bought all of Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie funds at an enterprise value of about $40bn, agreed in October 2025 and completed in July 2026.
The largest digital infrastructure transaction recorded, and the first investment by the BlackRock-, MGX-, Microsoft- and Nvidia-backed vehicle.
- Value
- $40B
- Announced
- October 2025
- Completed
- July 2026
- Sector
- Real Estate
- Deal type
- acquisition
- Acquirer
- AI Infrastructure Partnership (BlackRock GIP and MGX) (United States)
- Target
- Aligned Data Centers (United States)
Why it mattered
The AI Infrastructure Partnership was set up in September 2024 by BlackRock, GIP, MGX, Microsoft and Nvidia to finance the data centres and energy that artificial intelligence needs. It aims to mobilise $30bn of equity, and up to $100bn including debt; xAI, the Kuwait Investment Authority and Temasek joined later, and Larry Fink of BlackRock chairs it. Aligned was its first investment.
The target was a Dallas-based developer that Macquarie Asset Management had backed since April 2018, when it had two facilities, in Dallas and Phoenix, with 85MW of capacity. By the sale it had 50 campuses and more than 5GW of operational and planned capacity across the United States and Latin America, and Macquarie described what it had built as a land bank with access to power at scale in core markets. The price, announced on 15 October 2025, far exceeded the previous record for a data-centre company — AirTrunk, which Macquarie had also sold in 2024 at about $16bn including debt and planned capital expenditure. The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals, and completed on 21 July 2026, with chief executive Andrew Schaap and his team staying on.
What it left behind
At closing Aligned reported 51 campuses and more than 6.4GW of operational and planned capacity, and the consortium committed a further $5bn of growth capital to it. In September 2026 Aligned broke ground on "Project Phoenix", a 2GW campus in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, beside a former coal-fired power station being redeveloped as a gas-fired energy site; the campus is to run on its own onsite power rather than draw from the grid. As of 29 September 2026 it is too early to judge the returns. What the deal already shows is the shape of AI infrastructure finance: asset managers, an Abu Dhabi investment company and technology groups such as Microsoft and Nvidia pooling capital to own capacity outright. It also shows where the value in data centres now sits — Macquarie's return came from assembling land with power and building on it, and Project Phoenix brings its own power supply.