KKR has signed a $50 billion strategic partnership with American investment firm Energy Capital Partners (ECP).
The partnership will focus on accelerating data center, power generation, and transmission infrastructure development to support the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing worldwide.
“With our combined footprint and capabilities, we have a more than 8GW existing data aenter pipeline, 100GW of currently operating and development-ready power generation, and significant experience working with stakeholders across both industries to help realize this opportunity quickly and responsibly,” said Waldemar Szlezak, partner and global head of digital infrastructure, KKR.
The collaboration aims to support large-scale model training, tuning, and inferencing across different regions. The partners will work with industry players, including utilities, power producers, and data center developers, to speed up the development of large data center campuses for hyperscalers.
KKR will fund the partnership using its existing infrastructure, real estate strategies, and insurance accounts. ECP will fund it through existing and future infrastructure capital pools.
"In order for the US to maintain its advantage in AI, we will need massive new investments in power infrastructure on an accelerated basis that are capable of addressing concerns related to electricity prices and carbon emissions,” said Doug Kimmelman, founder and senior partner, ECP.
ECP invests across the clean energy asset base, holding interests in five asset classes: power generation, renewables, storage solutions, environmental infrastructure, sustainability, efficiency, and reliability. It has owned and operated over 83GW of power generation across the US market.
KKR has a significant data center footprint, with more than 100 facilities worldwide. It has separated itself as one of the most prominent investors in the data center market. In 2021, it closed one of the largest data center acquisitions to date, acquiring CyrusOne alongside Global Infrastructure Partners for $15 billion.
More recently, in conjunction with Singtel, it announced plans to invest S$1.75bn (US$1.3bn) in ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, with an option to invest an additional S$1.24bn (US$920m).
Last month, BlackRock launched its own $30bn AI infrastructure fund for data centers and power projects, backed by Microsoft and Nvidia.
