BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the asset manager planned to announce a partnership with a hyperscaler later in the week to build data centers.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Fink did not name the prospective partner. The planned partnership follows BlackRock’s investments in data centers and energy infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence.
BlackRock’s infrastructure investments
BlackRock completed its acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners, or GIP, on October 1, 2024. GIP operates as part of BlackRock and invests in sectors including energy, transport and digital infrastructure.
BlackRock, GIP, Microsoft and MGX launched an investment partnership in September 2024 focused on data centers and supporting power infrastructure, with Nvidia providing technical expertise. In 2025, the partners announced that Nvidia and xAI would join the initiative, renamed the AI Infrastructure Partnership, or AIP.
On October 15, 2025, a consortium comprising AIP, MGX and GIP announced plans to acquire all of Aligned Data Centers’ equity from private infrastructure funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management and their co-investors. The announcement put Aligned’s implied enterprise value at approximately $40 billion.
At the time of that announcement, the consortium expected the acquisition to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
Fink cites shortages and predicts a funding gap
Fink described current shortages of infrastructure and equipment needed to support AI. “We’re short power, we’re short compute, we’re short chips,” he said.
He also predicted that financing would fall short of infrastructure needs despite large spending plans across the technology sector. “I ultimately think we are going to see a shortage of capital,” Fink said.
Fink also predicted that futures contracts for computing power would become a new asset class. “A new asset class will be buying futures of compute,” he said.
He suggested that such contracts could help companies hedge against increases in computing costs, similar to how businesses manage exposure to fuel or agricultural commodity prices. His remarks described a potential future market.
