BlackRock, Nvidia, and Microsoft lead $40 billion deal for AI data center giant Aligned

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A powerful investor group including BlackRock, Microsoft, and Nvidia has agreed to buy Aligned Data Centers, one of the world’s largest data center operators, in a $40 billion deal aimed at securing critical infrastructure for artificial intelligence development.

The acquisition from Macquarie Asset Management marks the first major investment by the AI Infrastructure Partnership, a consortium that also includes Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund and Elon Musk’s startup xAI. The group plans to deploy up to $100 billion in capital, combining equity and debt, to expand global AI infrastructure.

“With this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we further our goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI,” said Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock and chairman of the partnership.

The move underscores the massive surge in spending by tech giants on computing capacity. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and CoreWeave are collectively expected to spend around $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year, according to Morgan Stanley. Meanwhile, OpenAI has inked multibillion-dollar deals with Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom to secure chip and data capacity worth over $1 trillion.

Founded in 2013, Aligned operates more than 80 data centers across 50 campuses in the U.S. and Latin America, with over 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity. The company has been a key beneficiary of the AI infrastructure boom, raising $12 billion in capital earlier this year.

Aligned will remain headquartered in Dallas, Texas, under CEO Andrew Schaap. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

Salesforce projects over $60 billion in revenue by 2030 as AI rollout accelerates

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Salesforce has raised its long-term outlook, forecasting revenue of more than $60 billion by 2030, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations of $58.37 billion. The projection, revealed during the company’s Dreamforce event, underscores confidence in its aggressive push to integrate artificial intelligence across all cloud services.

The forecast excludes the impact of Salesforce’s pending $8 billion acquisition of Informatica, a deal aimed at strengthening the company’s AI and data management capabilities. Informatica’s software helps businesses handle complex data integration and governance — key to powering AI-driven decision-making across Salesforce’s platform.

The company’s new Agentforce AI platform, which automates tasks and enhances operational efficiency, is expected to play a major role in future growth. Salesforce said Agentforce 360 will soon be available globally across its cloud suite, offering businesses new tools to improve productivity and cut costs.

Despite economic uncertainty and cautious corporate spending, Salesforce remains optimistic. Its shares jumped nearly 4% in after-hours trading following the announcement, even as the stock is still down 29% this year.

In addition to its growth forecast, Salesforce unveiled a $7 billion share buyback program to be completed over the next six months — a signal of confidence in its long-term profitability and cash flow strength.

Meta to invest $1.5 billion in massive AI data center in Texas

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Meta Platforms announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in a new data center in El Paso, Texas, marking its 29th global facility and third in the state, as part of its ongoing expansion to support artificial intelligence workloads. The new site will be one of the largest in the U.S., capable of scaling to 1 gigawatt of power — enough to supply a city the size of San Francisco for a full day.

Expected to go online in 2028, the El Paso data center will create around 100 permanent jobs and employ more than 1,800 construction workers at peak development. Meta said it chose El Paso for its strong electrical grid, skilled workforce, and access to renewable energy.

The project is part of a broader race among tech giants to build infrastructure for AI. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta together are projected to spend more than $360 billion in 2025 on cloud and AI infrastructure, most of it directed toward data centers.

Meta has already invested over $10 billion in Texas and employs more than 2,500 people statewide. The company said the new facility will be powered by 100% renewable energy and use a closed-loop, liquid-cooling system to recycle water continuously. It also pledged to restore twice the water consumed by the site to local watersheds, exceeding its 2030 sustainability goal of becoming “water-positive.”

Jon Barela, CEO of the Borderplex Alliance, which helped facilitate the project, described Meta as “the fastest gazelle in the industry,” noting that the deal stemmed from discussions with Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office four years ago and was supported by a package of local tax incentives.