BlackRock subsidiary buys up 78 data centers totaling 5 gigawatts in $40 billion deal — AI vendor Aligned added to company's portfolio

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Another day, another blimp with billions flying the skies of AI. Today's currency transfer comes from BlackRock subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), an investment fund set to write a big check to buy out Aligned Data Centers, a large AI datacenter company. Bloomberg cites sources with knowledge of the deal and pins the amount at a tidy $40 billion.

Aligned may not be a household name in tech news, but according to its website, the company has 78 datacenters in locations around the U.S. and South America, totaling 5 GW of processing power capacity across current and future developments.

The report remarks that the deal is set to be inked in a few days, but is not yet finalized. However, it's hard to imagine the agreement being called off in this age, where AI businesses' exponential growth has every investor under the sun tossing money at the prospect of massive short-term lucre. The $40 billion in play makes this deal one of the biggest this year, though it's still early October, and it wouldn't be surprising to see other large bets in short order.

Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals.