(Bloomberg) — Knowledge heart developer DataBank has raised $2 billion to construct three services deliberate throughout the US, the most recent signal of superheated investor curiosity in synthetic intelligence.
AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest pension fund, led the increase with $1.5 billion. It will develop into a minority proprietor of DataBank and appoint a director to the corporate’s board. DigitalBridge, which additionally participated within the increase, 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 information heart proposals — and raised considerations concerning the electrical energy wanted to function them. However to entry the power to coach and run highly effective AI fashions, information heart builders want to indicate they’ve the monetary backing to place metal within the floor, stated Raul Martynek, DataBank’s chief govt officer.
“It’s a must to make important commitments to acquire the ability,” he added. “Utilities are very targeted on ensuring any expenditure they make is recovered from a ratepayer perspective.”
DataBank plans to assemble three new services in established information heart 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 might energy about 750,000 properties.) These three services, when accomplished, will triple the quantity of energy the corporate at present consumes. The $2 billion increase totally funds DataBank’s plans to construct the brand new information facilities, Martynek stated.
AustralianSuper has proven an growing urge for food for personal market offers. It’s one among a number of Australian pension funds rising an offshore footprint, and about half of the pension business’s cash is invested outdoors the nation. AustralianSuper additionally moved its international head of personal fairness to New York in 2022 and is increasing its group there as a part of its broader plan to entry personal markets. The fund’s international actual property portfolio now totals almost $40 billion and contains digital infrastructure property throughout areas together with Australia, Europe and South America.
This increase brings the full invested in DataBank to greater than $4 billion over the previous yr, coming after a $725 million credit facility introduced in April 2024, a $456 million securitization accomplished in February 2024, and a $533 million debt and equity investment made in late 2023. DataBank is a personal firm and didn’t disclose its valuation within the newest fund increase.
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 all over the world, Derek Chu, the fund’s head of American actual property, stated in a press release.
Martynek additionally stated that by specializing in established information heart markets, DataBank will guarantee its services 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 nicely positioned to assist any of the opposite expertise developments,” he stated.
