Aligned Data Centers Secures $12 Billion to Expand AI-Ready Infrastructure

Aligned Data Centers Completes $12+ Billion Capital Raise

DALLAS, Jan. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aligned Data Centers, a leading technology infrastructure company offering innovative, sustainable and adaptive Scale Data Centers and Build-to-Scale solutions for global hyperscale and enterprise customers, today announced it has completed another round of capital raising totaling over $5 billion of new primary equity and over $7 billion of new debt commitments to fund accelerated platform expansion and ongoing innovation. The capital raise encompassed new primary equity from funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management, alongside multiple large global investors with significant experience in digital infrastructure. The funding will accelerate development of Aligned's 5+GW of planned future capacity across the Americas, well-positioning the company to meet surging demand for AI-ready infrastructure amongst its hyperscale and large enterprise customers. "We appreciate the commitment of our esteemed investors as we capitalize on the significant growth opportunities presented by the increasing demand for AI and cloud services," said Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned Data Centers. "With a world-class team, history of successful deployments in strategically selected, scalable locations, and over a decade of deploying innovative cooling solutions optimized for the demands of the most powerful GPUs, Aligned is uniquely positioned to meet this market opportunity. This investment will fuel our continued growth, enabling us to deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving demands of our customers today and in the future." "We are excited to continue to support the impressive growth of Aligned Data Centers," said Anton Moldan, Senior Managing Director at Macquarie Asset Management. "The partnership and strong demand from some of the world's leading digital infrastructure and technology investors is a true testament to the Aligned team's track record of successful delivery, customer-centric culture, innovation, and growth. With the underlying trends of digitization, cloud adoption, and evolving needs of high-performance compute and AI applications, we see significant opportunity to provide Aligned's customers with world-leading data center solutions." This funding round reflects the company's strong momentum, aggressive pursuit of growth opportunities, and successful execution of its strategic plan to date. About Aligned Data Centers Aligned Data Centers is a leading technology infrastructure company offering innovative, sustainable, and adaptive Scale Data Centers and Build-to-Scale solutions for global hyperscale and enterprise customers. Our intelligent infrastructure allows densification and vertical growth within the same footprint, enabling customers to scale up without disruption, all while maintaining industry-leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). By reducing the energy, water and space needed to operate, our data center solutions, combined with our patented cooling technology, offer businesses a competitive advantage by improving sustainability, reliability, and their bottom line. For more information, visit www.aligneddc.com and connect with us on X, LinkedIn and Facebook. About Macquarie Asset Management Macquarie Asset Management is a global asset manager, integrated across public and private markets. Trusted by institutions, governments, foundations and individuals to manage approximately $US633 billion in assets, we provide a diverse range of investment solutions including real assets, real estate, credit and equities & multi-asset. Macquarie Asset Management is part of Macquarie Group, a diversified financial group providing clients with asset management, finance, banking, advisory, and risk and capital solutions across debt, equity and commodities. Founded in 1969, Macquarie Group employs over 20,600 people in 34 markets and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. All figures as at 30 September 2024. Important Notices (Macquarie Asset Management): None of the entities noted in this media release is an authorised deposit-taking institution for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Commonwealth of Australia) and the obligations of these entities do not represent deposits or other liabilities of Macquarie Bank Limited ABN 46 008 583 542 (Macquarie Bank). Macquarie Bank does not guarantee or otherwise provide assurance in respect of the obligations of these entities. In addition, if this media release relates to an investment (a) each investor is subject to investment risk including possible delays in repayment and loss of income and principal invested and (b) none of Macquarie Bank or any other Macquarie Group company guarantees any particular rate of return on or the performance of the investment, nor do they guarantee repayment of capital in respect of the investment. Press and Analyst Inquiries Aligned Data Centers Jennifer Handshew [email protected] +1 917 359 8838 Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Aligned Data Centers gets $12B to expand its AI compute capacity - SiliconANGLE

Aligned Data Centers gets $12B to expand its AI compute capacity Data center operator Aligned Data Centers LLC said today it has raised a massive $12 billion in funding in order to accelerate the build out of its artificial intelligence-focused infrastructure. The money came from two sources, with the company saying it has secured $5 billion in primary equity from funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management, along with $7 billion in new debt commitments. Aligned, which is based in Plano, Texas, said it will use the money to construct more than five gigawatts of future AI computing capacity across North America and Latin America in order to meet skyrocketing demand from its customers. Aligned Chief Executive Andrew Schaap said his company is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for AI compute capacity, as it has more than a decade of experience in deploying the innovative cooling solutions required for the graphics processing units that power most AI workloads. "This investment will fuel our continued growth, enabling us to deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving demands of our customers today and in the future," he insisted. Aligned operates a number of colocation data centers that rent capacity to customers, and it also builds data center facilities to scale for hyperscale and enterprise firms. It currently operates data centers in Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Northern Virginia, and it is building additional sites in Illinois, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia. In addition, it has a massive operation in Latin America, having acquired a company called OData in May 2023, which has facilities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. It's also an investor in the Canadian data center operator QScale SEC, which gives it a foothold in that country, too. The rapid growth of AI over the last couple of years, driven by the popularity of large language models and chatbots like ChatGPT, has led to rising demand for high-capacity data centers that can cluster thousands of GPUs together in order to run those workloads. Aligned's business has grown tremendously as a result of this demand. Big tech firms like Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC are also spending billions of dollars to build out their AI compute capacity. Last week, Microsoft revealed that it's planning to invest as much as $80 billion into its data center building program in fiscal 2025 as it strives to maintain its leadership in AI innovation. That came after it revealed in September it's collaborating with BlackRock Inc. to create a $100 billion fund that will fuel the development of new data centers and energy projects. Energy is just as important as the data centers themselves, which explains why Microsoft, Google and Amazon.com Inc. have all expressed an interest in nuclear power sources recently. There are many specialist firms operating in this industry too. For instance, Crusoe Energy Systems LLC, which is focused on providing clean energy for data centers, last month closed on a $600 million funding round.