GIP circles Aligned Data Centers in near-$40bn mega-deal as AI land grab accelerates

BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners is closing in on a blockbuster purchase of Texas-based Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie, with a price tag hovering around $40 billion, according to people familiar with the talks. A signing could land as soon as next week. Abu Dhabi’s AI investment vehicle MGX — backed by Mubadala and G42 — is also in the mix and may come in alongside GIP as a co-investor.

It’s the latest — and one of the largest — bets on the digital plumbing behind artificial intelligence. Aligned runs nearly 80 data centers across the US, Canada and South America with about 5 gigawatts of capacity operating or in development. The company has been in expansion mode since January, when Macquarie-managed funds injected $5 billion of fresh equity and lenders added more than $7 billion of debt to fuel growth.

None of the parties — Macquarie, GIP, MGX or Mubadala — are commenting, but the strategic logic is plain. AI’s ravenous computing needs are turning data centers into must-own infrastructure with long-term, contracted revenue. Hyperscalers and AI outfits (think Lambda and peers) are locking in space and power, while investors are racing to secure both. GIP, which already holds marquee assets like Gatwick Airport, has also been in late-stage talks to buy utility AES in a deal topping $38–40 billion — a move that would marry compute demand with the electricity to run it.

If it lands near $40 billion, an Aligned takeover would rank among the five biggest deals of the year. It would also cap a furious run of sector M&A: research firms tally hundreds of data-center transactions since January, with tens of billions of dollars in closed and pending deals, as private equity, pensions and sovereign funds pile in.

Aligned’s draw is straightforward: scale, a multiregional footprint and a development pipeline tuned to AI workloads. For buyers, the risk is keeping pace with power procurement and build timelines just as the industry eyes even bigger undertakings — like the mooted $500 billion “Stargate” super-compute project backed by OpenAI allies.

The AI boom isn’t just about chips anymore. It’s about who owns the buildings, the megawatts and the balance sheet to stitch them together — and GIP is positioning to be at the center of that map.

The Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters contributed to this report.