BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is closing in on one of the year’s largest AI-related deals, with advanced talks underway to acquire Aligned Data Centers in a transaction that could value the company at around US$40 billion. The potential acquisition underscores the intensifying race among global investors to capture a share of the booming AI infrastructure ecosystem — from data centers and power assets to semiconductor supply chains.

The deal, which could be announced within days, would also see participation from Mubadala Investment’s AI arm MGX, highlighting how sovereign and institutional capital is converging on the backbone of the AI economy.

MGX, an AI investment company established by sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment, is also involved in the talks and would invest independently as part of a transaction, one of the people said. Mubadala has separately already invested in Aligned.

GIP has also been eyeing other big takeovers, including a potential acquisition of power company AES on expectations that the sector will benefit from surging electricity demand from facilities running AI applications. AES has an enterprise value of about US$38 billion, including debt.

GIP has not reached a final agreement for Aligned Data Centers and some details might change or the talks could still end without a transaction, the people said.

A spokesperson for BlackRock declined to comment. Representatives for Aligned, Macquarie and Mubadala did not respond to requests for comment outside of regular business hours.

The envisioned acquisition marks the latest in a parade of eye-popping deals since ChatGPT emerged, as investors vie for exposure to the leaders of a technology with the potential to transform industries and economies. They have piled into infrastructure providers such as chip linchpins Nvidia and SK Hynix, pushed up valuations of startups like OpenAI and Anthropic, and poured capital into all manner of gear suppliers to the AI boom.

The surge in valuations has worried some market observers who argue that, while data centre spending and construction is accelerating, AI services have yet to go mainstream and earn the revenues needed to justify the near-unprecedented rally.

“If the technology doesn’t catch up and doesn’t deliver as per the high expectations that the market’s pricing in, then we’re in for a bubble,” GIC group CIO Bryan Yeo told the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore.