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BlackRock$BLK · filed: grew revenue 18.7% in FY2025 to $24.2BNew shipNext year $24.2B–$29.8B sealedCheck ▾Close ▴
What BlackRock filed
Grew revenue 18.7% in FY2025 to $24.2 billion, operating margin 29.1% against a 24.4% median for security brokers, dealers & flotation companies, equity 32.9% of assets, and dividend per share up 3 years running. Every figure links to the filing it came from on BlackRock’s card. New ship: no warning signs.
What the house said in advance
Revenue for the fiscal year after 2025-12-31 between $24.2B and $29.8B, an 80% range sealed on 26 Sept 2026 · receipt #592edd · graded in public by the revenue in BlackRock’s next annual report.
Figures as filed with the SEC. Ranges, scores and boats are statistical descriptions of past filings, not ratings or recommendations. Reporting, not advice.
In plain words
BlackRock deployed **$45B** into one data center platform in one day, with Abu Dhabi money leading and Microsoft embedded as tenant-investor.
$40 billion
acquisition of Aligned Data Centers on Tuesday
$5 billion
in growth capital before the wire settled
$45 billion
total deployed represents the largest pure-play data center transaction…
1.8 gigawatts
of total capacity under contract or in development
A consortium led by BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners and Abu Dhabi sovereign fund MGX closed its $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers on Tuesday, then committed an additional $5 billion in growth capital before the wire settled. The Dallas-based hyperscaler becomes the inaugural asset of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership, a vehicle that also counts Microsoft as a named backer.
The $45 billion total deployed represents the largest pure-play data center transaction on record and the first time a Middle Eastern sovereign fund has led capital formation for US AI infrastructure at this scale. Aligned operates twelve campuses across seven states, with 1.8 gigawatts of total capacity under contract or in development. The growth tranche finances new builds in Ohio, Virginia, and Utah markets where hyperscaler demand already exceeds eighteen-month forward supply, according to CBRE lease data through Q2 2025.
The immediate follow-on capital signals two things. First, the consortium priced the base acquisition knowing it would need expansion funding within days, not quarters. That suggests Aligned's existing pipeline was underwritten as insufficient for contracted demand at close. Second, MGX's willingness to deploy sovereign reserves into US power infrastructure weeks after Trump tariff announcements indicates Gulf allocators now view energy-adjacent assets as structurally insulated from trade policy volatility. Microsoft's participation—previously disclosed but not quantified—gives Redmond both capacity priority and visibility into competitor build timelines, a dual advantage as Azure's AI workload growth outpaces AWS in six of eight US regions.
The $5 billion growth commitment funds construction starts before permitting risk on two Virginia campuses and one Ohio facility, all three within twelve miles of existing fiber routes owned by Lumen and Zayo. That geography is deliberate. Aligned's model sells wholesale capacity to hyperscalers who then self-provision connectivity, but proximity to lit fiber reduces tenant time-to-revenue by four to six months. The Ohio site sits nine miles from a Duke Energy substation that came online in March 2025 with 600 megawatts of slack capacity, making it one of three locations in the eastern US where a data center operator can energize at scale without utility build-out delays.
Operators should track two catalysts. Aligned will file for grid interconnection permits in Summit County, Ohio, and Loudoun County, Virginia, within thirty days, according to local utility disclosures. Those filings will reveal contracted capacity in megawatts, which the consortium has not disclosed. Separately, MGX's participation creates a template for other Gulf sovereigns—Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Qatar Investment Authority, Saudi PIF—to enter US data center equity without regulatory friction. If CFIUS raises no objections within the standard seventy-five-day post-close window, expect similar consortium structures on the two remaining US hyperscale platforms still privately held: QTS and CyrusOne, both of which retain sponsor ownership and both of which face refinancing windows in Q4 2025.
The Ohio permit filing is the tell. If Aligned requests interconnection above 400 megawatts, the growth capital is already allocated to signed hyperscaler contracts, not speculative builds.
Branded by POPS4 · proof in 60 seconds
For the principal
MGX's participation without CFIUS friction creates a Gulf-to-US infrastructure channel; watch for ADIA and QIA replications within ninety days.
For the operator
Track Summit County and Loudoun permit filings for contracted megawatt figures; above 400MW means hyperscaler capacity is already sold, not speculative.
For the house
Named-account positioning: long Equinix and Digital Realty on scarcity premium as $45B consolidates capacity; short CyrusOne refinancing risk into Q4 window.
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