A consortium led by BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners, Abu Dhabi sovereign vehicle MGX, and the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership closed its $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers on Tuesday, then committed an additional $5 billion in growth capital before the ink dried. The Dallas-based hyperscale operator is now the most expensive data center platform ever transacted, and the follow-on commitment signals the buyers expect capacity constraints to tighten, not ease.
Aligned operates 21 facilities across 10 U.S. markets with 1.5 gigawatts of critical IT capacity, concentrated in Northern Virginia, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. The portfolio went under contract in March at a 28x EBITDA multiple, roughly 40% above the previous data center transaction benchmark set by Blackstone's $10 billion QTS acquisition in 2021. The $5 billion growth tranche will fund new builds and power contract extensions through 2027, according to people familiar with the financing structure.
The speed of the add-on capital matters more than the size. Infrastructure funds typically stage equity over 18-24 months to derisk construction and lease-up. This consortium funded the earnout in the same week as close, which means they see forward lease commitments from hyperscalers that justify locking in construction costs now. Northern Virginia power queues are running 36-48 months for new grid connections, and Aligned already holds 400 megawatts of contracted but unbuilt capacity in that market. The urgency is procurement arbitrage, not portfolio leverage.
MGX's participation marks Abu Dhabi's fourth data center entry in 14 months, following stakes in CoreWeave, Figure AI's inference layer, and a $3 billion commitment to Silver Lake's AI infrastructure fund. The emirate is positioning as the alternative to U.S. pension capital, which remains skittish on AI infrastructure at 2024 valuations. BlackRock structured GIP as the operating lead, MGX as the primary equity check, and AIP—a special-purpose vehicle formed for this deal—as the vehicle for additional LPs who wanted exposure without fund commitment. That SPV architecture is becoming standard for $10 billion-plus infra deals where capital formation takes longer than deal timelines.
The immediate follow-on also reshapes the refinancing calendar. Aligned carried $8 billion in existing debt at close, and the consortium will likely term out that paper in Q4 2025 once the first 200 megawatts of new capacity comes online. The growth equity reduces the refinancing burden and signals to lenders that this is a land-banking play, not a yield trade. Infrastructure debt desks are already modeling this as a 2028-2029 exit to a larger infra fund or a take-private of Digital Realty, which would give the buyer 4 gigawatts of combined U.S. capacity.
Operators should watch two follow-on moves. First, whether Aligned accelerates its Salt Lake City campus, which has 150 megawatts of entitled capacity and sits in a market with 4.2-cent power and minimal hyperscale competition. Second, whether BlackRock uses the Aligned structure as a template for other AI infra roll-ups—GIP has held talks with three edge compute platforms in the past 90 days, according to people briefed on the discussions.
The consortium paid $26,667 per kilowatt of existing capacity, then committed another $5 billion to build 300-400 megawatts more at roughly $12,500 per kilowatt. The blended cost is still 30% below replacement for Northern Virginia product delivering in 2027. That spread is the entire thesis.
The takeaway
Immediate $5B add-on after $40B close means the buyers see lease commitments that justify locking construction costs now, not staging equity.
data centersinfrastructureblackrockmgxhyperscaleai infrastructure
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