Ddos 
The AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP)—an investment consortium comprising technology giants such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, xAI, and Cisco—has announced a $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers, setting a new global record for the largest data center transaction in history.
The deal was orchestrated by Macquarie Asset Management, representing its two infrastructure private equity funds, MIP IV and MIP V, alongside a coalition of co-investment partners. In addition to the AIP alliance, the buyer consortium includes Abu Dhabi’s AI investment firm MGX and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a subsidiary of BlackRock.
Notably, the AIP alliance, founded in 2024, is the world’s first mega-investment consortium dedicated exclusively to AI infrastructure, boasting an investment capacity of up to $100 billion. The acquisition price far exceeds Aligned’s valuation of $12 billion following its funding round in January, underscoring the market’s soaring confidence in the future of AI infrastructure.
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Texas, Aligned Data Centers specializes in delivering sustainable, scalable, and rapidly deployable hyperscale data center solutions. The company is renowned for its modular design, which allows swift expansion of power and space to accommodate evolving client needs.
In the realm of green technology, Aligned has also distinguished itself, with over 5 gigawatts of total data center capacity—operational, under construction, and in development—across roughly 50 campuses worldwide. Excluding non-specialized hyperscalers such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, Aligned ranks among the top five independent data center operators globally.
Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi, CEO of MGX and Vice Chairman of AIP, remarked that humanity is entering “a new era where AI will redefine economies and accelerate growth,” emphasizing that large-scale computational infrastructure will serve as the foundation of this transformation. The investment in Aligned, he added, aims to channel scalable capital into an operator built on efficiency and expansion.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, with Aligned Data Centers’ headquarters remaining in Texas and Andrew Schaap continuing as CEO. The acquisition reflects a broader strategic movement among tech titans to fortify their infrastructure ecosystems amid the explosive rise of AI—ensuring the reliability and sustainability of future compute resources.
As AI-driven workloads continue to surge, data centers have emerged as critical strategic assets in the race for computational dominance. This historic $40 billion deal not only shatters industry records but also heralds the dawn of a new era of investment in AI infrastructure.
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