Spanish ACS Group reaches a $26.8 billion data center cooperation agreement with GIP, a subsidiary of BlackRock

According to Spanish media Expansion, Spanish ACS Group is close to reaching a cooperation agreement worth $26.8 billion with BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for the development of data centers.

The agreement includes GIP joining ACS's Digital & Energy division with a 50% equity stake, which involves a gradual capital injection of €5 billion and €18 billion in debt. Amid a surge in AI computing demand and limited power capacity, the valuation of digital infrastructure has reached new highs. ACS previously planned to increase the valuation of its data center business to between €3 billion and €5 billion by 2030, and this cooperation may push its valuation to the high end of that range.

GIP manages over $180 billion in global assets and last month participated with Microsoft and Nvidia in the acquisition of the U.S. data center company Aligned, valued at $40 billion. Morgan Stanley estimates that this year, major tech companies will spend $400 billion on AI infrastructure.