BLK · Earnings call · 2026Q3T · Full report
AI Infrastructure Financing
BlackRock, Inc. · 2026-10-14 · Importance 40 · Surprise 42 · In source text
BlackRock is positioning its infrastructure, private-credit, and technology capabilities to finance the global AI and data-center build-out. The firm partnered with Meta on financing its planned $14 billion Texas data center and is developing dedicated financing pools for technology companies’ customers seeking additional compute capacity. Management said a 1-gigawatt U.S. data center can carry approximately $50 billion of enterprise cost, with roughly 40% attributable to GPUs and chips. BlackRock is pursuing asset-based financing structures supported by data and analytics for GPUs, chips, data centers, and startup AI companies, with management estimating $7 trillion to $9 trillion of U.S. power-grid, power-security, and core-and-shell investment over several years.
Key facts
- BlackRock has long-standing relationships with hyperscalers, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and corporate clients and partnered with Meta on financing its planned $14 billion data center in Texas.
- BlackRock completed the first deployment of its AI Infrastructure Partnership with the closing of the Aligned Data Centers transaction, which had an approximately $40 billion enterprise value.
- BlackRock's Aligned Data Centers transaction closing had an approximately $40 billion enterprise value and was the first deployment of its AI Infrastructure Partnership.
- BlackRock stated a 1-gigawatt data center in the U.S. has about a $50 billion enterprise cost, with 40% the cost of GPUs and chips and 60% power, grid, core, and shell.
- BlackRock said the opportunity to securitize compute financing exists over time into tradable structures for a broader set of clients.
- BlackRock participates in senior investment-grade public debt markets and 144A, participates in holdco notes and mezzanine financing through insurance accounts, and participates in equity and junior securities especially through the HPS and GIP platforms.
- BlackRock says delivering whole-cap-stack financing across geographies and client types is integral to providing financing solutions for issuers related to GPUs, data centers and compute.
Impact estimates
| metric | direction | stage | expected | basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| assets | positive | probable | — | BlackRock has long-standing relationships with hyperscalers, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and corporate clients and partnered… |
| assets | positive | realized | — | BlackRock completed the first deployment of its AI Infrastructure Partnership with the closing of the Aligned Data Centers transaction,… |