Temasek, Nvidia part of group buying $51.8 billion AI data centre operator in record deal
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Aligned Data Centers, which is based in Texas, has 50 campuses in the US and South America.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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Bengaluru – An investor group including Singapore’s Temasek, BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia is buying one of the world’s biggest data centre operators with nearly 80 facilities in a deal worth US$40 billion (S$51.8 billion) to secure coveted computing capacity for artificial intelligence (AI).
The deal is the biggest-ever data centre transaction as companies race to lock in AI computing power.
Aligned Data Centers, which is based in Texas, currently has 50 campuses in the US and South America. It has 78 data centres under management or in future development, according to its website.
Its purchase from Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management on Oct 15 is also the first deal for the AI Infrastructure Partnership, formed in 2024. The partnership includes Temasek, the Kuwait Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi-based fund MGX and Mr Elon Musk’s start-up xAI among its backers.
“With this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we further our goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI,” said BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink, who also serves as the chairman of the AI Infrastructure Partnership.
The acquisition is the latest in a series of big-ticket deals involving big tech and Silicon Valley start-ups, which the boom in AI has fuelled.
Major tech companies including Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta, Microsoft and CoreWeave are on track to spend US$400 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025, Morgan Stanley estimates.
OpenAI, the start-up at the heart of the AI boom, struck deals in recent weeks
Meta Platforms is building several multi-gigawatt AI data centres, including one called Prometheus, due to come online in 2026, and another, Hyperion, which can scale up to 5GW.
Privately held Aligned Data Centers currently has over 5GW of operational and planned capacity.
Mr Joe Tigay, portfolio manager at Nvidia shareholder Equity Armor Investments, said the acquisition highlights the growing value of data centre assets for investors.
“They’re looking at rapid expansion to meet AI demand and optimise for it.”
Winners in AI spending boom
Founded in 2013, Aligned has been a big winner of the AI infrastructure spending boom, raising US$12 billion in equity and debt earlier in 2025 – one of the largest private capital injections into a data centre company.
Its customers include cloud computing platform Nutanix and information technology services provider Datto, according to its website.
The company also has a land portfolio with access to significant near-term power capacity in key markets, said Macquarie, which first invested in the company in 2018.
Shares of its publicly-listed rivals, such as Applied Digital, have soared more than fourfold in 2025. Applied Digital shares jumped 5 per cent on Oct 15.
The investment group buying Aligned has an initial target of deploying US$30 billion of equity capital, with the potential of reaching US$100 billion including debt. It has not disclosed how much each partner has contributed to the group nor the equity value of the deal.
Nvidia and Aligned declined to comment, while the investors did not immediately respond to requests seeking more details on the deal.
“All the major parties in that consortium, they are showing the strength of the AI ecosystem,” said Mr Hendi Susanto, portfolio manager at Nvidia investor Gabelli Funds.
Aligned will remain headquartered in Dallas, Texas, under CEO Andrew Schaap when the deal closes in the first half of 2026, the investor group said in its statement. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
