(Reuters) – A consortium of investors including BlackRock and Nvidia will acquire Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management in a $40 billion deal, the companies said on Wednesday, as the expansion of infrastructure for artificial intelligence continues.

The deal highlights the intensifying race to expand the costly and capacity-constrained infrastructure needed to support the development of artificial intelligence, as companies race to create the most advanced AI models.

The acquisition is part of a series of mega-acquisitions aimed at securing coveted computing capacity. ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced deals in recent weeks for about 26 gigawatts of computing capacity, enough to power about 20 million U.S. homes.

The investment consortium, called the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), has an initial goal of deploying $30 billion in equity, with the potential to grow to $100 billion, including debt.

This is AIP’s first investment. The transaction is expected to be finalized during the first half of 2026.

“With this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we are continuing our goal of providing the infrastructure needed to power the future of AI,” said Larry Fink, Managing Director of BlackRock and Chairman of AIP.

AIP’s anchor investors also include the Kuwait Investment Authority and Singaporean state investor Temasek.

Aligned Data Centers, which designs, builds and operates data centers for hyperscalers, neoclouds and enterprises, has 50 campuses totaling more than 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity across the United States and Latin America.

The company will remain headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and will be led by Chief Executive Officer Andrew Schaap.

(Written by Arsheeya Bajwa, Elena Smirnova, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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