With over US$70 billion in prospective data centres projects, and a current portfolio worth US$55 billion, Blackstone is positioning itself as one of the largest financial investors in Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure globally.
Investment plans were shared during the recent investor call for Blackstone second-quarter 2024 earnings. Shedding light on Blackstone’s current and future projects, CEO Stephen Schwarzman said, “Our portfolio today consists of US$55 billion in data centres, including facilities under construction, along with over US$70 billion in prospective pipeline development.”
Schwarzman compared the impact of the invention of the electric light bulb by Thomas Edison in 1880 to the repercussions of the explosive growth of AI. He said, “While it took years to develop commercially viable products, the subsequent buildup of the electric grid over the following decades parallels the creation of data centers today to power the AI revolution.”
Sounding upbeat about growth in the United States, he said, “Current expectations are that there will be approximately US$1 trillion in capital expenditures in the United States over the next five years to build and facilitate new data centres, with another US$1 trillion in capital expenditures outside the United States.” He further said, “The need to provide power for these data centres is a major contributor to an expected 40% increase in electricity demand in the United States over the next decades compared to minimal growth in the last decade.” Blackstone views these explosive trends as unprecedented investment opportunities for the firm.