(Bloomberg) — Information middle developer DataBank has raised $2 billion to construct three amenities deliberate throughout the US, the newest signal of superheated investor curiosity in synthetic intelligence.
AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest pension fund, led the elevate with $1.5 billion. It will change into a minority proprietor of DataBank and appoint a director to the corporate’s board. DigitalBridge, which additionally participated within the elevate, is already DataBank’s management investor and appoints the vast majority of the corporate’s board of administrators.
The AI gold rush has sparked a increase in knowledge middle proposals — and raised issues in regards to the electrical energy wanted to function them. However to entry the power to coach and run highly effective AI fashions, knowledge middle builders want to point out they’ve the monetary backing to place metal within the floor, mentioned Raul Martynek, DataBank’s chief govt officer.
“You need to make vital commitments to acquire the ability,” he added. “Utilities are very centered on ensuring any expenditure they make is recovered from a ratepayer perspective.”
DataBank plans to assemble three new amenities in established knowledge middle hotspots: a 480-megawatt campus in south Dallas, a 192-megawatt campus in Culpeper, Virginia, and a 120-megawatt campus in Atlanta. (One-thousand megawatts is roughly the output of a nuclear reactor and may energy about 750,000 houses.) These three amenities, when accomplished, will triple the quantity of energy the corporate at present consumes. The $2 billion elevate absolutely funds DataBank’s plans to construct the brand new knowledge facilities, Martynek mentioned.
AustralianSuper has proven an rising urge for food for personal market offers. It’s considered one of a number of Australian pension funds rising an offshore footprint, and about half of the pension business’s cash is invested exterior the nation. AustralianSuper additionally moved its international head of personal fairness to New York in 2022 and is increasing its staff there as a part of its broader plan to entry non-public markets. The fund’s international actual belongings portfolio now totals almost $40 billion and consists of digital infrastructure belongings throughout areas together with Australia, Europe and South America.
This elevate brings the full invested in DataBank to greater than $4 billion over the previous 12 months, coming after a $725 million credit score facility introduced in April 2024, a $456 million securitization accomplished in February 2024, and a $533 million debt and fairness funding made in late 2023. DataBank is a personal firm and didn’t disclose its valuation within the newest fund elevate.
AustralianSuper’s funding in DataBank will capitalize on “unprecedented demand for cloud and AI infrastructure” and can diversify the fund’s publicity to digital infrastructure world wide, Derek Chu, the fund’s head of American actual belongings, mentioned in a press release.
Martynek additionally mentioned that by specializing in established knowledge middle markets, DataBank will guarantee its amenities are in demand for cloud and enterprise computing even when the AI craze cools off. “We love the tailwinds that AI is driving, however we additionally really feel that these places are extraordinarily effectively positioned to help any of the opposite know-how tendencies,” he mentioned.
