A consortium of investors led by Blackstone has bought the Asia-Pacific data center platform from Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) for an implied enterprise value of more than $24 billion, the manager said of the fund on Thursday.

The acquisition, according to John Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, represents “another vital step” as Blackstone strives to be the world’s leading digital infrastructure investor across the entire ecosystem, including data centers, power and related services.

“This is Blackstone at its best – using our global platform to capitalize on our most compelling topic,” Gray said.

Digital infrastructure has recently experienced unprecedented demand, driven by the AI ​​revolution as well as the broader digitization of the global economy.

It is expected that there will be approximately $1 trillion in capital spending in the United States over the next five years to build and facilitate new data centers, with another $1 trillion in capital spending outside the United States.

Blackstone plans to capitalize on this movement while helping to address the sector's huge energy needs, including as an investor in energy and utility companies.

Commenting on the significance of the AirTrunk deal, Sean Klimczak, Global Head of Blackstone Infrastructure, and Nadeem Meji, Global Co-Head of Blackstone Real Estate, said: “Prior to AirTrunk, Blackstone's portfolio consisted of US$55 billion of data centers, including facilities in construction process, along with over $70 billion in future pipeline development.”

"We look forward to partnering with AirTrunk's outstanding management team to further accelerate its growth."

The consortium, made up of Blackstone Real Estate Partners, Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Blackstone's private equity strategy for individual investors, along with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, is now waiting for the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board to green light the deal – is believed to be Blackstone's largest investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a separate statement, MAM and PSP Investments said the agreement was for the sale of all of their holdings, totaling 88 percent of AirTrunk.

As part of the deal, AirTrunk founder and CEO Robin Hooda will also realize a portion of his stake.

"The AirTrunk story is a true partnership between MAM, PSP Investments and AirTrunk's world-class team," said Annie Satchcroft, co-head of infrastructure for Asia Pacific at MAM.

"Our journey with AirTrunk and the drive and foresight of our teams in the Asia-Pacific region has seen AirTrunk expand into key markets in the region, achieving a more than eightfold increase in contracted capacity."

MAM confirmed that Khuda, who founded AirTrunk in 2015, will remain with the company as CEO.

AirTrunk is the largest data center platform in the Asia Pacific region, with a significant presence in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. It has more than 800 MW of capacity dedicated to customers and owns land that can support over 1 GW of future growth across the region.