Analysis
A consortium backed by BlackRock Inc. and IFM Investors Pty has entered exclusive talks to acquire Stack Infrastructure's Asia-Pacific data centers, in a deal that could value the portfolio at $20 billion to $25 billion, according to Bloomberg. The investor group is preparing to run due diligence on the assets, which span key markets including Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney and Melbourne.
Who's Actually In The Room
The buying group centers on BlackRock's Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership, known as AIP, alongside IFM Investors, a large Australian-headquartered infrastructure manager. AIP launched in late 2024 with plans to invest more than $30 billion initially in AI-related infrastructure, including data centers and energy facilities, and it counts Nvidia, Microsoft, xAI and MGX among its investors -- a structure in which some of AIP's own backers are also the companies most likely to lease compute inside whatever AIP ends up owning. Stack Infrastructure, the target, is currently owned by Blue Owl Capital, which has built one of the more aggressive hyperscaler-leased data-center portfolios in private markets over the past several years. Pulse has previously covered BlackRock's expanding AI-infrastructure footprint, including a pension-fund AI financing push alongside Nvidia and a $14 billion Meta data-center deal in El Paso -- this Stack deal would be the asset manager's largest single AI-infrastructure bet yet.
“The $5 billion spread in the reported valuation range is itself evidence of how much remains unresolved.”
The Comparable Deals
Data-center and AI-infrastructure transactions of this size are still rare enough that each one gets measured against the last big one. Google's $32 billion purchase of Wiz earlier this year and SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition of Cursor-maker Anysphere both reset expectations for what counts as a normal-sized 2026 tech deal, even though neither is a direct comparable -- this is real estate and power infrastructure, not software. The more relevant peer set is other hyperscaler-adjacent infrastructure plays: Digital Realty, Equinix and Vantage Data Centers have all been raising and deploying capital into similar APAC and US buildouts, while CoreWeave and Crusoe Energy represent the newer, AI-native side of the same capital-intensive category.
What $20-25B Means Against AIP's Own Mandate
A deal at the top of the reported range would use up roughly five-sixths of AIP's original $30 billion-plus initial mandate in a single transaction, a strikingly concentrated bet for a vehicle that was pitched to its own investors as diversified AI infrastructure exposure rather than one Asia-Pacific data-center portfolio. Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney and Melbourne are also four of the more power-constrained data-center markets in the developed world right now, which is part of why assets there command a premium -- and part of why the execution risk (grid capacity, permitting, local power pricing) is real rather than theoretical.
- BlackRock's AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP) -- launched late 2024 with plans to invest more than $30B initially in AI-related data centers and energy infrastructure; investors include Nvidia, Microsoft, xAI and MGX.
- IFM Investors -- Australian-headquartered global infrastructure investor co-leading the consortium's exclusive talks alongside AIP.
- Stack Infrastructure -- the target; operates data centers across Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney and Melbourne; currently owned by Blue Owl Capital.
What The Headline Misses
Nothing here is signed. Bloomberg's own reporting frames this as exclusive talks with due diligence still to come, and deals of this size and complexity fall apart between "exclusive talks" and a signed agreement more often than headlines acknowledge -- financing terms, regulatory review of foreign ownership over critical digital infrastructure in Japan and Australia, and power-supply commitments from local utilities all still have to clear before this closes. The $5 billion spread in the reported valuation range is itself evidence of how much remains unresolved. The reporting has also been carried by The Star, though that account traces back to the same underlying Bloomberg wire reporting rather than independent confirmation -- worth noting that at this stage, most of the coverage is one sourcing chain repeated, not multiple newsrooms verifying separately.
What It Means For LPs And Founders
For LPs in BlackRock and IFM vehicles, this is a real test of how much single-asset concentration risk they're willing to accept inside a fund pitched as diversified AI infrastructure exposure. For founders building AI power, cooling or grid-interconnection startups, a deal this size is a demand signal worth more than another funding round headline -- it says institutional capital is willing to underwrite APAC power-constrained data-center assets at a premium right now, which sets the going rate for every smaller deal that follows it.
The clock to watch is whether this converts from exclusive talks to a signed agreement before AIP's own investors start asking how much of the original $30 billion mandate is left uncommitted.