America’s data-center developers are ready to cash in on the AI boom.
Data-center builders and operators across the U.S. are working with bankers to sell majority equity stakes worth tens of billions of dollars in their companies this summer, according to people familiar with the efforts.
Bankers are working to sell stakes in firms including Netrality Data Centers, DataBank, Edged, EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure and others with properties located from Phoenix to Atlanta. They are pitching private-equity firms on a hot asset class benefiting from unrelenting demand for computing power.
Sales of data-center operators are on the rise as owners of these firms seek exits and investor interest in owning the physical infrastructure behind advanced artificial intelligence grows. A massive backlog of demand for server capacity pushed companies to pursue novel strategies to secure more of it, from renting chips from direct competitors to launching data centers into orbit.