The deal marks another sign of the tech sector's insatiable appetite for AI infrastructure, including chips, servers and data centers that provide the computing storage and processing power required by artificial intelligence.
Founded in 2013, Aligned currently operates more than 50 data centers in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, with a projected capacity exceeding five gigawatts, equivalent to powering millions of homes.
Macquarie initially acquired a stake in the Texas-based company in 2018 through its subsidiary Macquarie Asset Management and subsequently increased its investment in 2020.
The acquiring consortium consists of BlackRock, Emirati sovereign tech fund MGX, and the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), a joint venture established in 2024 that includes MGX, Nvidia, and Microsoft.
AIP itself plans to raise $30 billion in direct investments and leverage debt to achieve a total investment capacity of $100 billion.
The partners have not disclosed how equity will be distributed among Aligned's new shareholders following the transaction's completion, expected in the first half of 2026.
"We are entering a new era in which AI will fundamentally reengineer our economies and enable accelerated growth," said Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi, CEO of MGX and vice chairman of AIP, in a press release.
US tech behemoths are all trying to keep pace with the AI infrastructure build-out, with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI announcing its own series of mega deals it says are necessary to meet the expected demand for AI capacity.
Facebook giant Meta announced Wednesday it is building a major AI data center with one gigawatt capacity in El Paso, Texas, marking the tech giant's 29th data facility and third in the state.
Meta said it plans to invest up to $72 billion in mostly AI-related capital expenditures in 2025.
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