Blackstone has provided Aligned Data Centers with financing for a planned data center.
Aligned and Blackstone Credit & Insurance (BXCI) this week announced Blackstone has provided an initial $600 million senior secured credit facility to support the development of Aligned’s new data center in West Jordan, Utah.
The senior secured credit facility is committed entirely by insurance accounts managed by BXCI’s Infrastructure & Asset Based Credit Group.
Aligned’s SLC-03 data center is a two-story, 80MW build-to-suit facility at its West Jordan campus. The site hosts three facilities, while Aligned has four data centers in the Salt Lake City metro area.
Aligned first announced plans for SLC-03 back in June 2022. It was previously described as a 100MW facility.
“Blackstone’s support contributes to Aligned’s continued growth in meeting the capacity demands of customers across the globe,” said Anubhav Raj, CFO at Aligned.
“The capital demands of this industry make strong financial backing crucial. Strategic financing partnerships focused on ingenuity and collaboration are a key advantage. We are excited to embark on this initial transaction and build on future opportunities with Blackstone.”
Robert Horn, global head of infrastructure and asset based credit at BXCI, said the company was "thrilled" to partner with Aligned. He said: "This partnership highlights our ability to support large-scale digital infrastructure build-out with flexible and efficient financing solutions.”
Aligned opened its SLC-02 facility on the same campus in March 2021. The facility, built on a greenfield site, has 48MW power, expandable to 60MW, and 240,000 sq ft (22,300 sqm) of space. SLC-01, renovated in 2018, spans 300,000 sq ft (27,900 sqm) and has 34MW of capacity.
As well as the three-facility campus, Aligned also has another build-to-suit data center in the Salt Lake Metro Area known as SLC-04.
Macquarie Asset Management and Mubadala are major investors in Aligned. Blackstone owns QTS and is said to be eyeing a bid to acquire APAC operator AirTrunk.
Aligned currently operates campuses in Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Northern Virginia. The company has further sites in development in Oregon, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, and Virginia. It has also invested in OData in Latin America and QScale in Canada.