Microsoft and BlackRock are teaming up to launch a $30 billion artificial intelligence investment fund to build data centers and energy projects to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence.
The financial consortium, led by BlackRock and its newly formed infrastructure investment arm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) , will be one of the largest Investment Vehicles ever launched on Wall Street . GPU chipmaker Nvidia will act as an advisor on plant design and integration.
The investment fund is designed to address the huge demand for energy and digital infrastructure in building AI products, which are expected to face serious capacity bottlenecks in the coming years. AI’s computing power requires more energy than previous technological innovations, putting pressure on existing energy infrastructure.
The project, called the Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) , plans to raise up to $30 billion in equity Capital and use that money to back up to $70 billion in debt financing. The group is aiming for a total of $100 billion, meeting the growing demand for data centers with Nvidia’s powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) to run generative AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“We are committed to ensuring that AI helps drive innovation and growth across every sector of the economy,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella . He said the initiative will “bring together financial and industry leaders to build the infrastructure of the future and power it sustainably.”
Microsoft continues to invest to expand its Azure public cloud infrastructure, supporting customers like OpenAI . In the fourth quarter of its fiscal year alone, Microsoft 's Capital spending reached $19 billion , including assets purchased through finance leases.
