GIP Nears $40B Takeover of AI-Focused Aligned Data Centers with Mubadala-Backed MGX

Global Infrastructure Partners (Private), the infrastructure investor linked to BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), is reportedly closing in on a roughly $40 billion takeover of Aligned Data Centers (Private).

Word is that the parties are in advanced negotiations and that an announcement could come within days. The takeover talks include Abu Dhabi's AI-focused vehicle MGX (Abu Dhabi: MGX), a platform built with Mubadala (Abu Dhabi: MUBADALA) and G42 as founding partners, which would participate alongside the buyer.

BlackRock and GIP declined to comment. Macquarie-backed Aligned and the Abu Dhabi entities did not offer immediate responses either.

Why the rush? Aligned, based in Texas, has been a poster child for AI-tailored data center capacity. It raised more than $12 billion earlier this year as hyperscalers and enterprises scrambled for specialized compute real estate. That demand for AI infrastructure is massive; one widely circulated estimate puts cumulative investment needs into AI-capable data centers in the trillions by the end of the decade.

At roughly $40 billion, the price tag would rank among the heftiest private deals in the colocation and data-center space. That kind of number sends ripples through the market - public peers such as Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) and Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) will get re-priced benchmarks to chew on, and deal chatter like this often recalibrates how buyers and sellers value purpose-built AI capacity versus legacy floorspace.

Put another way: investors and analysts watching data-center economics will be parsing not just the headline price, but the implied multiples for revenue, recurring contracts, and the premium paid for AI-ready design and location. For an industry where scale and power density matter, a show-stopping private bid can rewrite comparables overnight.

Nothing is signed yet. But if the transaction closes at the reported figure, it will be a clear signal that big private capital still sees the data-center sector - especially the AI slice of it - as a place to deploy very large sums. A lot of buyers have been chasing a relatively small pool of high-spec capacity. That pressure shows up in valuations.

So: a potential $40 billion check, a cash partner from Abu Dhabi with ties to Mubadala and G42, and a seller backed by Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG) - the pieces are in motion. Will this kick off a spate of similar deals for AI-optimized facilities?