By Isla Binnie
NEW YORK, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, still sees good opportunities to invest in data centers despite a rush of investment into the hardware supporting the development of artificial intelligence, its president said on Wednesday.
Technology companies need vast computing capacity to develop AI, and financial investors are joining them in pouring money into the physical sites for processors and other hardware. Researchers at consulting firm McKinsey estimate the buildout could cost $6.7 trillion worldwide by 2030.
“Surprisingly, despite the capital that has moved there, because of the constraints of power it’s still an attractive place to deploy capital,” Blackstone president and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said at a Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York.
Blackstone paid about $10 billion to take data center operator QTS private in 2021. Gray said its lease capacity had grown by 12 times since then.
He also addressed concerns about the long-term prospects for those investments, saying Blackstone would not invest until contracts were signed to use a site.
“You don’t put a shovel in the ground until you have a 15-plus-year lease with a very large market cap company,” he said.
(Reporting by Isla BinnieEditing by Bill Berkrot)
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