A BlackRock-backed consortium has entered formal talks to acquire Stack Infrastructure's Asia-Pacific data center portfolio in a transaction valued at approximately $25 billion, according to market disclosures. The carveout would represent the largest regional infrastructure transaction in the sector since GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board took a $15 billion stake in Digital Realty in 2022.
Stack Infrastructure operates 27 operational data centers across Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, and Seoul, with another 11 facilities in advanced construction stages. The consortium's structure remains undisclosed, but BlackRock's involvement suggests participation from its Global Infrastructure Partners platform, which closed a $21.6 billion infrastructure fund in March 2024. The talks follow Stack's $1.2 billion capital raise in January that valued the entire company at approximately $38 billion, implying the Asia-Pacific book represents roughly two-thirds of enterprise value by asset count but carries premium margin density.
The timing reflects three converging forces. First, AI inference workloads have driven colocation pricing power in Singapore and Tokyo by 18-22% year-over-year, with Equinix reporting 94% utilization rates across both markets in Q2 2024. Second, hyperscale commitments from Microsoft, Amazon, and Google for Pacific Rim capacity have created $47 billion in forward take-or-pay contracts across the region, de-risking revenue for the next 4-6 years. Third, sovereign data residency requirements in Japan, Australia, and Singapore have structurally reduced supply elasticity, creating a regulatory moat that justifies infrastructure multiples north of 22x EBITDA—well above the 16-18x range typical for U.S. assets.
For allocators, this deal clarifies three pricing benchmarks. The implied $925 million per operational facility valuation sets a floor for comparable Asian Tier 1 assets. The consortium's willingness to absorb construction risk on 11 unfinished facilities suggests confidence in forward power agreements and hyperscale anchor tenancy. And BlackRock's return to large-scale data center M&A—after exiting Digital Realty in 2019—signals institutional conviction that Pacific infrastructure has entered a sustained pricing cycle, not a transient AI bubble.
Operators should track Stack's U.S. portfolio strategy. If the Asia-Pacific carveout proceeds, Stack will hold 34 North American facilities with materially lower utilization (81% vs. 94%) and pricing power. That creates pressure for a follow-on monetization event or aggressive backfill campaigns in Northern Virginia and Phoenix by Q2 2025. Watch for Singapore's EDB approval process, which typically runs 90-120 days for foreign infrastructure control changes, and any consortium equity co-investor disclosures that would reveal whether Temasek or GIC are participating alongside BlackRock.
The deal's close timing hinges on completion of Stack's Tokyo campus expansion, currently 73% complete with a scheduled operational handoff in February 2025. That facility alone accounts for $3.8 billion of the transaction value and carries pre-leased commitments from two unnamed hyperscalers totaling 18 megawatts.