BlackRock’s GIP to Enter $27B JV With ACS

November 17, 2025

Data Centers Featured Finance International More Investment National News

Plans call for the creation of a new data center development platform.

The Lighthouse data center campus in Wisconsin — One of the larger data center campuses currently underway in the U.S. is Vantage’s $15 billion Lighthouse development in Wisconsin. *Image courtesy of Vantage Data Centers*

Spain-based ACS Group is about to enter a strategic joint venture with BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners to develop and operate data centers worldwide. This agreement is valued at nearly $26.8 billion, according to Reuters.

Each partner is to own a 50 percent stake in a new data center development platform which will include ACS’s existing 1.7-gigawatt portfolio across the U.S., Europe and Australia, valued at $2.3 billion. Approximately $1.2 billion will constitute cash payments, while initial earn-outs will total up to $1.2 billion.

In addition, ACS is reviewing a development pipeline of more than 11 gigawatts in potential data center projects spread across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. They could generate an extra earn-out of $232 million.

ACS is bringing its engineering and technology capabilities to the partnership as well. The company completed more than 5.5 gigawatts in data center capacities through its subsidiaries, including Leighton Asia and Turner Construction Co., as well as its recently purchased division, Dornan Group.

Earlier this year, ACS received tax incentives for a $2 billion, five-building campus in Fort Worth, Texas. The project’s first phase is expected to come online by the end of 2031.

Investors can’t look away from data centers

As demand for data centers ramped up, so did the investors’ appetite for the industry, especially since the White House has unveiled the Stargate Initiative. At the time, the announcement that some $100 billion would be deployed through Stargate, part of a $500 billion investment over the following four years, aimed at building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI.

In one of the sector’s recent largest deals, a consortium of investors including Global Infrastructure Partners signed an agreement to purchase all equity in Aligned Data Centers. The company, currently owned by Macquarie Asset Management, operates more than 50 data center campuses worldwide and is valued at about $40 billion.

And, earlier this month, Vantage Data Centers secured a new partner for its $15 billion project in Port Washington, Wis., a northern suburb of Milwaukee. When complete, the facility developed in conjunction with OpenAI and Oracle will feature four data centers providing close to a gigawatt of AI capacity.