Alternative asset manager, Blackstone, and technology giant Google, have announced a joint venture to build and operate a U.S.-based artificial intelligence data center company, which focuses on providing compute capacity for AI workloads using Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs).
According to a press release, the new company will offer data center capacity, operations, networking, and TPUs as a compute-as-a-service product. Customers will be able to access TPUs outside of Google Cloud’s existing platform. Google will supply the hardware, including TPUs, as well as software and services to support the buildout and operations of the new company. Benjamin Treynor Sloss, a long-time Google infrastructure executive, has been named as CEO of the new entity.
Jon Gray, President and COO, Blackstone, said, “We see a generational opportunity to invest capital at scale building AI infrastructure. This new company has enormous potential as it helps to meet the unprecedented demand for compute. We are incredibly proud to partner with Google – bringing together their world class TPUs and AI capabilities with Blackstone’s exceptional strength in energy and digital infrastructure.”
Jas Khaira, Head of Blackstone N1 (BXN1), said, “Capital alone doesn’t build category-defining platforms – the right partner, the right structure, and the conviction to underwrite singular opportunities do. Google’s TPUs, a decade in the making and foundational to the AI economy, are exactly the kind of platform BXN1 was built to back.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, said, “This joint venture with Blackstone helps meet growing demand for TPUs, which are optimized specifically for efficiency and performance in the AI era. Together, we’re accelerating AI transformation and providing more options for organizations to access accelerated compute capability.”
Google’s TPUs are custom chips designed for AI training and inference and have been used in production systems for over a decade. They support workloads for external customers including AI labs, financial firms, and high-performance computing users, and also power Google’s Gemini models and related products.
Blackstone is a major investor in data center infrastructure and is making an initial US$ 5 billion equity commitment through funds it manages. The joint venture plans to bring its first 500 MW of capacity online in 2027, with further expansion planned.