Aligned Data Centers gets $12B to expand its AI compute capacity – News

Data center operator Aligned Data Centers LLC said today it has raised a massive $12 billion in funding in order to accelerate the buildout of its artificial intelligence-focused infrastructure.

The money came from two sources: $5 billion in primary equity from funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management and $7 billion in new debt commitments.

Aligned, which is based in Plano, Texas, said it will use the money to construct more than 5 gigawatts of future AI computing capacity across North America and Latin America in order to meet skyrocketing demand from its customers.

Aligned Chief Executive Andrew Schaap said his company is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for AI compute capacity, as it has more than a decade of experience in deploying the innovative cooling solutions required for the graphics processing units that power most AI workloads.

“This investment will fuel our continued growth, enabling us to deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving demands of our customers today and in the future,” he said.

Aligned operates a number of colocation data centers that rent capacity to customers, and it also builds data center facilities for hyperscale and enterprise firms. It currently operates data centers in Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Northern Virginia, and its building additional sites in Illinois, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia.

In addition, it has a massive operation in Latin America, having acquired a company called OData in May 2023, which has facilities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. It’s also an investor in the Canadian data center operator QScale SEC, which gives it a foothold in that country as well.

The rapid growth of AI over the last couple of years, driven by the popularity of large language models and chatbots like ChatGPT, has led to rising demand for high-capacity data centers that can cluster thousands of GPUs together in order to run those workloads. Aligned’s business has grown tremendously as a result of this demand.

Big tech firms such as Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC are also spending billions of dollars to build out their AI compute capacity. Last week, Microsoft revealed that it’s planning to invest as much as $80 billion into its data center building program in fiscal 2025 as it strives to maintain its leadership in AI innovation. That came after it revealed in September that it’s collaborating with BlackRock Inc. to create a $100 billion fund that will fuel the development of new data centers and energy projects.

Energy is just as important as the data centers themselves, which explains why Microsoft, Google and Amazon.com Inc. have all expressed an interest in nuclear power sources recently. There are many specialist firms operating in this industry too. For instance, Crusoe Energy Systems LLC, which is focused on providing clean energy for data centers, last month closed on a $600 million funding round.

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