AIP, MGX and BlackRock's GIP close $40 billion Aligned Data Centers acquisition

The AI Infrastructure Partnership, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners closed their acquisition of Aligned Data Centers on July 21 at an enterprise value of about $40 billion.

The buyers acquired 100% of the equity from private infrastructure funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management and co-investors. The Aligned Data Centers acquisition ranks among the largest private digital-infrastructure deals on record, a marker of how much capital is chasing the physical capacity behind the AI build-out.

Aligned runs 51 campuses with more than 6.4 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity across markets including Northern Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Sao Paulo and Santiago. The consortium committed an additional $5 billion of growth capital at closing to fund expansion.

The growth commitment signals the buyers plan to build, not just hold. Power-hungry data-center capacity has become the binding constraint on training and serving large AI models, and long-lived infrastructure assets with contracted demand have drawn pension funds, sovereign wealth and asset managers into a market once dominated by a handful of operators.

Chief executive Andrew Schaap and the existing management team continue running the company from its Dallas, Texas headquarters.

The deal was first announced in October 2025 at roughly the same $40 billion valuation, then covering about 50 campuses and 5GW, and had been expected to close in the first half of 2026. The final portfolio – 51 campuses and 6.4GW – is modestly larger than at signing, and the extra growth capital sets up further expansion from here.