Blackstone said it has agreed to buy Australian data-center operator AirTrunk in a deal that values the company at A$24 billion ($16 billion), marking the fast-growing industry’s biggest acquisition to date.
The deal, which Blackstone is making alongside the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, represents the asset manager’s largest investment in the Asia Pacific region. The transaction will also create an exit for existing owners Macquarie Asset Management and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Digitization of the economy is driving ever more investment in the global backbone of ecommerce and the internet in general, with much of the growth fueled by demand for AI capability.
This year private equity investors have made deals totaling more than $36 billion in the industry, including the AirTrunk deal. That is putting the total near the record-setting $42.6 billion invested in data centers in 2021.
Other significant transactions in the sector this year include a $9.2 billion investment in Vantage Data Centers in June by DigitalBridge and Silver Lake.
AirTrunk is the largest operator of data centers in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore, according to Blackstone.
Before the AirTrunk deal, Blackstone had invested in $55 billion of data centers to date, including facilities under construction. In 2021, it led a $10 billion deal that took data center operator QTS Realty Trust private.
Data processing and storage center. Server room. Supercomputer. Technology.
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