Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (AIP), MGX, and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners closed their $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers on Tuesday, completing one of the largest infrastructure transactions of 2025. The deal transfers ownership of 1.5 gigawatts of existing hyperscale data center capacity and a pipeline exceeding 3 gigawatts across fifteen US markets to a consortium that now controls roughly 4% of North American colocation capacity.
Aligned operates thirty facilities purpose-built for cloud and AI workloads, with concentrations in Northern Virginia, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. The portfolio includes direct fiber connections to AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud anchor tenants under contracts averaging 8.2 years remaining term. Power delivery infrastructure supports rack densities up to 50 kilowatts, a specification that matters as training runs for frontier models push beyond 100 megawatts per cluster. The sale price implies a 22x trailing EBITDA multiple, 340 basis points above the sector median twelve months ago.
The buyer structure tells you what changed. AIP typically writes $2-4 billion checks for mature infrastructure with regulated returns. MGX, Abu Dhabi's technology investment vehicle launched eighteen months ago with a $100 billion mandate, exists specifically to capture compute infrastructure before scarcity pricing arrives. BlackRock's GIP manages $130 billion in infrastructure assets and has spent the past sixteen months doubling its data center exposure. Three pools with different return hurdles converged on the same thesis: hyperscale capacity is becoming sovereign-grade infrastructure, and the replacement cost per megawatt is climbing faster than public equity markets price in.
Power availability drove the valuation gap. Aligned secured 2.1 gigawatts of utility commitments across its development pipeline, locking in electricity at rates 18-30% below spot pricing in constrained markets like Northern Virginia, where Dominion Energy's interconnection queue exceeds 50 gigawatts with average wait times pushing four years. The consortium paid for contracted electrons, not buildings. Data centers without power commitments trade at 40-60% discounts to powered equivalents in private markets. Aligned's management, led by CEO Andrew Schaap, remains in place under an earn-out structure tied to occupancy targets through 2027.
Operators should track three follow-on moves. First, MGX and AIP will likely consolidate additional capacity within six months—both hold stakes in competing platforms and now have $18 billion in dry powder earmarked for digital infrastructure. Second, watch Aligned's customer concentration: Microsoft and AWS represent 68% of contracted revenue, and hyperscalers are testing owned-and-operated models that bypass third-party landlords. Third, the consortium will monetize Aligned's land bank—890 acres across eight metros—through structured sale-leasebacks to REITs seeking powered sites without development risk. Pricing on those parcels will set the clearing rate for hyperscale-ready dirt through mid-2026.
The deal closed at $26.67 per square foot of existing capacity and $0.18 per reserved watt in the development pipeline. Those are the numbers that matter when the next $30 billion hyperscale portfolio comes to market.