
BlackRock-led consortium announces data center deal, should this be a cause for concern?
By Easton Martin | October 15, 2025
A consortium led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has announced the acquisition of Aligned Data Centers in a deal valued at roughly $40 billion. The partnership includes Microsoft, Nvidia, and MGX, marking one of the largest infrastructure transactions in the history of the technology sector.
The newly formed group, called the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), plans to invest up to $30 billion in equity capital with room to expand to $100 billion as demand for AI-driven computing power continues to surge. Aligned Data Centers operates more than 50 campuses across the United States and Latin America, with over five gigawatts of current and planned power capacity.
The most unsettling part of this deal is the control it gives a small circle of corporations over the gateways to artificial intelligence itself. By owning the data centers, the hardware, and the platforms that run AI, BlackRock, Microsoft, and Nvidia now hold the keys to who can build and deploy the next generation of technology. Access to high-level computing power will no longer be a level playing field, but a privilege managed by the few.