Microsoft and BlackRock, alongside infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners and tech investment company MGX, have today announced the $30 billion (£22.6bn~) Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) to build data centres and the new energy facilities needed to power them.

The infrastructure investments for the data centres and energy projects will be chiefly in the United States, but also in U.S. partner countries.

GAIIP will support an open architecture and broad ecosystem, providing full access on a non-exclusive basis for a range of partners and companies, according to the firms. It’ll also engage with industry leaders to help enhance AI supply chains and energy sourcing for the benefit of its customers and the industry.

Supporting GAIIP will be chip leader NVIDIA, offering its expertise in AI data centres and AI factories.

The partnership will seek to unlock $30bn (£22.6bn~) of private equity capital over time from investors, asset owners, and corporates, which in turn will mobilise up to $100bn (£75.5bn~) in total investment potential when including debt financing, it’s been said.

“We are committed to ensuring AI helps advance innovation and drives growth across every sector of the economy,” commented Satya Nadella, the chairman and CEO of Microsoft, on GAIIP.

“The Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership will help us deliver on this vision, as we bring together financial and industry leaders to build the infrastructure of the future and power it in a sustainable way.”

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, also said: “Accelerated computing and generative AI are driving a growing need for AI infrastructure for the next industrial revolution.

“NVIDIA will use its expertise as a full stack computing platform to support GAIIP and its portfolio companies on the design and integration of AI factories to propel industry innovation.”

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If Data Is King, What Does That Make Data Centres?
The announcement of GAIIP comes just days after the UK witnessed some significant news and funding concerning data centres—the much- and increasingly-needed infrastructure for AI.

This time last week, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed an £8 billion investment from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help drive data centre growth in the UK and support thousands of jobs.

The investment is estimated to support around 14,000 jobs per year at local businesses, including those across the company’s data centre supply chain such as facility maintenance, engineering, telecommunications, and construction, as well as other jobs within the broader local economy.

Just a day later, technology secretary Peter Kyle announced that the UK government would class UK data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)—the first designation of this kind in nearly a decade, when the space and defence sectors gained the same status in 2015.

The designation consequently means that UK data centres can now expect greater government support in recovering from and anticipating critical incidents.