Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke during the company’s Build developer conference in Seattle on May 21, 2024. Microsoft and BlackRock are working together, along with other companies, to raise up to $100 billion to develop data centers for artificial intelligence and the energy infrastructure needed to power them. This collaboration is part of the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) that aims to bring together financial and industry leaders to build the infrastructure of the future in a sustainable way.
The group’s goal is to gather $30 billion of initial capital, with a future target of up to $100 billion, including debt financing. Tech companies like Nvidia have been rushing to build data centers equipped with GPUs to run advanced AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, which require significant power consumption. Microsoft’s investment in this initiative is on top of the capital expenditures required to support the expansion of its Azure public cloud, which serves AI customers.
In January, BlackRock announced plans to acquire GIP for $3 billion in cash and shares of BlackRock common stock. This acquisition is expected to close on Oct. 1, as part of BlackRock’s efforts to expand its infrastructure investments. MGX, launched in March, includes Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and AI firm G42 as founding partners in this collaboration to support the development of AI infrastructure.
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