Tech and finance giants Microsoft and BlackRock are joining forces to strengthen their AI infrastructure. The Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP), led by Microsoft, aims to invest nearly $100 billion to develop data centers and the energy infrastructure required to power them.
Microsoft is making aggressive moves in the AI field
This week, a partnership was announced that includes Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), an infrastructure investor in the process of being acquired by BlackRock, and MGX, a tech investor based in the UAE. The partnership initially plans to raise $30 billion in capital, with the goal of eventually expanding to $100 billion, including debt financing.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated, “We are committed to ensuring that AI drives innovation and supports growth across every sector of the economy,” highlighting that this initiative brings together leaders in finance and industry to build and sustain the infrastructure of the future.
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This move is gaining attention as part of the race to build data centers filled with Nvidia GPUs, capable of running AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The increasing demand for these high-energy-consuming graphics cards has paved the way for the development of new facilities.
This investment by Microsoft comes in addition to its ongoing efforts to expand the infrastructure needed for its Azure cloud platform. In its fiscal fourth-quarter report released in July, Microsoft reported that capital expenditures had reached $19 billion, including assets acquired through financial leasing.
