BlackRock-Microsoft-NVIDIA-Backed Group Buys Aligned For $40 Billion As More Invest

According to the International Monetary Fund's chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the United States' artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom may be followed by a dot-com-style bust, but would unlikely be a systemic event that greatly impacts the U.S. or global economy.

The AI boom was likened to the late 1990s internet stock bubble, and the lure of a new, transformative technology may not meet short-term market expectations, triggering a crash in stock valuations.

“This is not financed by debt, and that means that if there is a market correction, some shareholders, some equity holders, may lose out,” said Gourinchas during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington. “But it doesn't necessarily transmit to the broader financial system and create impairments in the banking system or in the financial system more broadly.”

Despite the warning from the IMF’s chief economist—and other experts—companies continue investing big in AI technology, infrastructure (such as data centers, CPUs, and GPUs), and companies providing related services.

Meanwhile, tech giants continue snapping up promising startups and established firms through acquisitions, partnerships, and other arrangements.

Sticking to this trend, Aligned Data Centers announced it was acquired by a consortium consisting of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), MGX, and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

The deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2026 (subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions), comes with an enterprise value of approximately $40 billion.

AIP was founded by BlackRock and its GIP, MGX, Microsoft, and NVIDIA, with the intent of expanding the capacity of AI infrastructure and boosting AI-driven economic growth. The deal with Aligned is AIP’s first investment and is a big step in its goal of mobilizing and deploying $30 billion of equity capital, with the potential of reaching $100 billion including debt.

Aligned, which is one of the world’s biggest providers of innovative, sustainable, and adaptive digital infrastructure that powers cloud computing and AI workloads, designs, builds, and operates cutting-edge data campuses and data centers. It comes with a portfolio spanning 50 campuses and more than 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity across the U.S.

“Partnering with the Consortium will accelerate our mission to deliver the infrastructure powering tomorrow’s digital economy,” said Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned Data Centers. “With AIP, MGX, and GIP’s global reach, extensive resources, and deep expertise across AI, energy, and finance, we are poised to scale faster, innovate further, and redefine what’s possible in sustainable data center infrastructure.”


Llama creator Meta also announced plans to invest more than $1.5 billion in a new, cutting-edge AI-focused data center that can scale to 1GW, located in El Paso, Texas, where the company said it was breaking ground on its 29th data center.

The new data center will help the company deliver top-tier AI models and eventually superintelligence.

The amount committed represents investments in the initial phase, while the data center itself is expected to support around 100 operational jobs when completed. During the construction of the initial phase, Meta anticipates over 1,800 construction workers will be on-site (peak phase).

Meta plans to use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system in this data center that will use zero water for most of the year, amid its aims of becoming water positive in 2030, with its El Paso data center set to restore 200% of the water consumed.

Furthermore, the new data center’s electricity use will be matched with 100% clean and renewable energy. Meta has also paid for new grid infrastructure required to connect the data center, including new transmission lines and substations.

This adds to other data centers the company has in Texas, which spans an investment of $10 billion and over 2,500 full-time employees in its data centers, offices, and research labs in the state.

Recently, Meta signed a $14.2 billion deal with CoreWeave to source computing power, gaining access to CoreWeave’s infrastructure of NVIDIA GB300 systems.


Among its various data center projects, Google announced plans to invest approximately $15 billion over the next five years (2026-2030) to build the company’s and India’s first AI hub in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, which would be carried out with India’s Bharti Airtel (Airtel) and AdaniConneX as partners.

To support this endeavor, Airtel said it has entered into a strategic partnership with IBM to augment its recently launched Airtel Cloud.

The deal will combine Airtel’s telco-grade reliability, high security, and data residency, with IBM’s leadership in cloud solutions, and AI-focused advanced infrastructure and software technologies.

The two will enable enterprises to scale AI workloads more efficiently, delivering interoperability across on-premises, cloud, multi-cloud, and edge environments. 

“Enterprises today need to balance modernization with the growing regulated technology and AI requirements,” said Rob Thomas, SVP and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “Through our partnership with Bharti Airtel, clients across India can leverage IBM’s innovative cloud offerings designed for workloads that address their strategic business priorities.”

Do you think companies are overspending on AI and could spur economic and financial troubles for the world, or will the heavy spending help them lead the AI revolution?

Let us know in the comments below!