Microsoft, BlackRock, and Elon Musk's xAI Join Forces in $30 Billion AI Infrastructure Partnership

Musk's xAI Startup Joins Microsoft-BlackRock $30 Billion AI Fund

Microsoft Corp., the biggest backer of Sam Altman's OpenAI, and BlackRock Inc., which has an executive on the artificial intelligence startup's board, are joining forces with one of his chief rivals. Microsoft and BlackRock said Wednesday that Elon Musk's xAI is joining their effort to build $30 billion worth of data centers and other artificial intelligence infrastructure. The AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp., which was already named as a technical adviser to the group when it was announced last year, is also formally joining, according to a statement that didn't detail member commitments.

Nvidia, xAI to join Microsoft, BlackRock to develop AI infrastructure

March 19 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's xAI and AI chip giant Nvidia will be part of a group to develop infrastructure for artificial intelligence, BlackRock (BLK.N), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and Abu Dhabi-backed investment company MGX said on Wednesday. Deep learning and large-scale data processing require significant computational power, which in turn increases energy consumption. To meet these demands, tech companies are deploying thousands of chips in clusters, driving a surge in the need for specialized data centers. The group will be renamed as AI Infrastructure Partnership from Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, which was announced in September last year. The partnership will initially generate $30 billion in capital from investors, asset owners and corporations, potentially mobilizing up to $100 billion in total investment, including debt financing, the group said. Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

Elon Musk's xAI and Nvidia join BlackRock and Microsoft's $30bn AI fund

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI and chipmaker Nvidia are becoming partners in a multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure fund backed by BlackRock, Microsoft and Abu Dhabi, as companies rush to build data centres and energy projects to power generative AI. The technology groups said on Wednesday they would join the so-called AI Infrastructure Partnership, with plans to initially raise $30bn from investors and companies, with the goal of securing up to $100bn in total investment including debt financing. The investment vehicle is aimed at addressing the staggering power and digital infrastructure demands of building AI products that are expected to face severe capacity bottlenecks in the coming years. The computing power of AI requires far more energy than previous technological innovations and has strained existing energy infrastructure. BlackRock launched the fund in September last year alongside Microsoft and Abu Dhabi AI investment fund MGX. Nvidia, which already provides technical advice to the fund, is becoming a full partner alongside Musk's xAI, which is emerging as a challenger to AI start-ups such as OpenAI. Musk's start-up already has plans to deploy more than 1mn graphics processing units -- the chips needed to train cutting edge AI -- and operates a cluster of more than 100,000 Nvidia GPUs. "The global buildout of AI infrastructure will benefit every company and country that wants to achieve economic growth and unlock solutions to the world's greatest challenges," said Nvidia chief Jensen Huang. Part of the financial muscle behind the fund comes from Abu Dhabi, which is leveraging its vast oil wealth to bet heavily on AI. Its efforts are being led by the United Arab Emirates' powerful national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who met US President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening during a visit to Washington. AI "underpins the future", said Sheikh Tahnoon, MGX chair. The move comes two months after SoftBank and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, launched their own "Stargate" project to build AI infrastructure, which was endorsed by Trump with plans to spend up to $100bn. Following the Stargate announcement in January, Microsoft said that it would change the structure of its deal with OpenAI to enable the start-up to use rivals' cloud-computing services. Tech companies have committed vast sums for capital expenditure dedicated to the buildout of AI. Microsoft has pledged to spend roughly $80bn in the current fiscal year ending June 30 to build data centre infrastructure necessary to train AI models and deploy applications. This has led to concern over energy use needed to supply data centres. The International Energy Agency estimates that global electricity consumption by data centres could surpass 1,000 terawatt-hours by 2026, more than twice the amount used in 2022.

Elon Musk Is Joining Microsoft in $30 Billion Data Center Project

The biggest backer of OpenAI, Microsoft is now building its own AI models and teaming up with Sam Altman's mortal enemy. Elon Musk somehow manages to win again. Microsoft, along with BlackRock and UAE-based MGX, have announced they are partnering with his artificial intelligence startup xAI on a $30 billion project to develop data centers and other infrastructure. Microsoft, being the largest backer of OpenAI, is essentially teaming up with one of its rivals. That relationship has increasingly cooled as Microsoft loosens its reliance on the startup and develops its own in-house AI models including MAI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is no fan of Musk, recently describing him as insecure in an interview, and must be screaming inside. Altman probably is not wrong about Musk's insecurity, but insecurity is a powerful motivator. Gizmodo has reached out to xAI for comment. Musk's companies do not often respond to media inquiries. The details of the new deal with xAI are unclear, like how much money Musk's startup will commit to the data center venture. xAI has raised $12 billion since its founding in 2023, nearly the same amount as OpenAI, and is reportedly looking to raise another $10 billion. Its data center in Memphis, dubbed Colossus, is said to be the largest in the world with more than one million GPUs powering the Grok chatbot that is deeply integrated into X. xAI has received criticism for using gas turbines to feed its significant power demands, and receiving significant concessions from the city of Memphis even though data centers usually do not employ many people, and AI threatens to eliminate jobs. Most companies in the space hope to build out nuclear energy to power their demands, which could be a positive for the green energy transition, but building out nuclear takes many years. In the meantime, President Trump has advocated for building out coal power plants next to data centers. Every company in the artificial intelligence space is racing to build out computing infrastructure they believe will be necessary to stand out in an incredibly competitive field. Forming partnerships could help spread the costs of these expansive projects, and Bloomberg reports that other investors might join the Microsoft-xAI project: The Microsoft-backed group will be renamed the AI Infrastructure Partnership, or AIP, and focus on infrastructure investments -- including energy projects -- mostly in the US, with a portion of the funds to be deployed in partner countries, according to the companies. The plan foresees bringing on additional investors. Clients, including pensions and insurers, are eager for such long-term infrastructure projects, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said in the statement. OpenAI early this year announced its own $100 billion infrastructure project with Oracle and SoftBank, one of the earlier signs that it was distancing itself from Microsoft. The big tech company has been building out its own in-house models that could be faster and less expensive to run than ChatGPT, and Microsoft likely does not want to be reliant on an independent company for its AI models if the technology is going to be as revolutionary as many in the industry believe. It is better to control your own destiny than rely on a wild and frenetic company like OpenAI, which has seen a slew of scandals and ongoing drama, including the brief ouster of Altman. The whole thing must be very satisfying to Musk, who clearly launched xAI out of jealousy of OpenAI's sudden and massive rise. He co-founded the startup, after all, but left following disputes surrounding its direction, only to see the company launch ChatGPT and kickstart a new AI generation. Now he is teaming up with OpenAI's largest backer on his own rival startup. Musk also continues to try and sue OpenAI over its transition to a for-profit company, among other issues. It is viewed as a convenient way to try and slow OpenAI's growth as he builds a competitor. Musk's close relationship with the Trump administration has aided him significantly. The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that X is now privately valued at $44 billion, the exact same price he paid for what was then called Twitter back in 2022. Once a bastion of coastal elites, X has become something more of a Republican media outlet and microphone to promote President Trump's agenda. xAI similarly has had no problems raising funding from sovereign wealth funds and others who want to be close to power. OpenAI's ChatGPT remains far and away the most popular AI chatbot in use today with a reported 400 million weekly users and name recognition that none of its competitors enjoy. xAI is banking on its access to real-time posts from X to differentiate Grok as a powerful chatbot, even though the social network is littered with misinformation. Grok is deeply integrated with X, with buttons allowing users to ask for more context about specific posts. But the general idea seems to be that cozying up to Trump and making X the town square of the Republican party will support xAI's rise as a major AI player. The chatbot, like all the others, suffers from serious issues producing accurate responses. Last year, Musk gave shares in xAI to investors in his Twitter takeover, as well as preferential access to xAI's funding rounds, effectively ensuring they would make their money back. The new deal with Microsoft cements xAI as a legitimate player in the AI race. While it remains a major question how impactful AI chatbots will really become in the world, it is understood that should they be as successful as hoped, having access to significant compute will help the few survive. Anyone can run a model like DeepSeek, but "agents" that control computers and do work for users will be resource-intensive, and users will go to competitors if their usage is rate-limited by another.

Nvidia, xAI join $30B AI investment consortium backed by Microsoft - SiliconANGLE

Nvidia, xAI join $30B AI investment consortium backed by Microsoft Nvidia Corp. and xAI Corp. have joined a consortium that plans to invest $30 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The companies announced their decision to participate today. In conjunction, the consortium has renamed itself from Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership to AI Infrastructure Partnership, or AIP for short. AIP was launched last September by Microsoft Corp., BlackRock Inc. and MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm. BlackRock's recently acquired GIP subsidiary is also a founding backer. It's an infrastructure-focused fund that operates assets such as data centers, wind farms and airports. The consortium's initial goal is to invest more than $30 billion in AI projects. In the longer term, AIP hopes to raise as much as $100 billion from companies and other backers. The consortium disclosed today that the fund has "attracted significant capital and partner interest since its inception in September." Last year, Microsoft detailed that AIP plans to invest in data centers and energy infrastructure. The fund expects to invest the bulk of its capital in the U.S. Prior to the announcement that Nvidia is joining AIP, the chipmaker was a technical advisor to the consortium. Last year, it agreed to provide technical input on the AI data centers in which the fund will invest. Nvidia plans to continue providing technical advice going forward. "The global buildout of AI infrastructure will benefit every company and country that wants to achieve economic growth and unlock solutions to the world's greatest challenges," said Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang. Separately, AIP's backers today disclosed that GE Vernova Inc. and NextEra Energy Inc. will also work with the consortium. GE Veronva is a supplier of energy generation equipment such as wind turbine engines. It spun off from General Electric Co. last year as part of the latter company's split into three firms. According to BlackRock, GE Veronva will work with AIP and its partners on supply chain planning initiatives. NextEra Energy, the other company that will collaborate with the consortium, is the largest electric utility in the U.S. It's the world's top provider of wind energy. The utility will help "accelerate the scaling of critical and diverse energy solutions for AI data centers." Several of AIP's backers are also involved in other AI infrastructure investment initiatives. Last year, Microsoft partnered with utility Constellation Energy Generation LLC to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The latter company will invest $1.6 billion to renovate the facility. After it comes online in 2026, the power plant will supply 835,000 megawatts of electricity for Microsoft data centers.

Musk's xAI joins Microsoft-BlackRock $47b AI fund

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Microsoft, the biggest backer of Sam Altman's OpenAI, and BlackRock, which has an executive on the artificial intelligence startup's board, are joining forces with one of its chief rivals. Abu Dhabi's MGX, Microsoft and BlackRock said Elon Musk's xAI is joining their effort to build $US30 billion ($47.4 billion) worth of data centres and other artificial intelligence infrastructure. The AI chipmaker Nvidia, which was already named as a technical adviser to the group when it was announced last year, is also formally joining, according to a statement on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) that didn't detail member commitments.

Nvidia, xAI to Join BlackRock and Microsoft's $30 Billion AI Infrastructure Fund

BlackRock and Microsoft, along with investment firms Global Infrastructure Partners and MGX, first announced the $30 billion fundraising effort in September. On Wednesday, the companies said AI heavyweight Nvidia and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk's startup xAI will join the renamed AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP). GE Vernova (GEV) and NextEra Energy (NEE) will also collaborate with the group to "accelerate the scaling of critical and diverse energy solutions for AI data centers," the companies said. The group said its efforts have "attracted significant capital and partner interest since its inception," but did not say how much of its planned $30 billion goal it has raised since September. "We believe this unparalleled partnership of leading global companies across the AI ecosystem brings technology expertise together with private capital to meet this demand," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said. Nvidia shares were up 1% premarket Wednesday, on the heels of a 3% decline Tuesday as markets reacted to CEO Jensen Huang's keynote at the GTC Conference. Shares of Microsoft, BlackRock, GE Vernova, and NextEra were all little changed Wednesday morning.

Nvidia, Musk's xAI to Join Microsoft, BlackRock, MGX for AI Infrastructure

The consortium has been looking to raise money from investors, corporates Nvidia and Elon Musk's xAI have joined a consortium backed by Microsoft, investment fund MGX and BlackRock to expand AI infrastructure in the US, the companies said on Wednesday, as a global race to dominate the nascent technology intensifies. The group, formed last year with a goal to initially invest more than $30 billion (roughly Rs. 2,58,984 crore) in AI-related projects, is one of the biggest efforts to bankroll data centers and energy facilities needed to power AI applications such as ChatGPT. The additions come two months after US President Donald Trump announced Stargate, a private sector AI infrastructure initiative backed by SoftBank Group, OpenAI, and Oracle, with plans to mobilise up to $500 billion (roughly Rs. 43,16,626 crore). Investors have committed $100 billion (roughly Rs. 8,63,500 crore) for immediate deployment, with the rest expected over the next four years. The consortium - which includes BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners - on Wednesday renamed itself as AI Infrastructure Partnership. Nvidia, a technical advisor, will continue in the role. Training AI models and large-scale data processing require huge computational power, which increases energy consumption. To meet the demands, tech companies are deploying thousands of chips in clusters, driving a surge for specialised data centers. To fund the computing and power needs, the consortium has been looking to raise money from investors, asset owners and corporations, with a goal to mobilise up to $100 billion (roughly Rs. 8,63,500 crore), including debt financing. "AIP has attracted significant capital and partner interest since its inception in September," the group said, but did not disclose the total funds raised so far. GE Vernova and utility firm NextEra Energy will also be a part of the group, it said, adding the renewable energy company will work on supply-chain planning and high efficiency energy solutions. AIP said its investments will also focus on US partners and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. © Thomson Reuters 2025

Musk's xAI joins Microsoft-BlackRock $30 billion AI fund

Microsoft, the biggest backer of Sam Altman's OpenAI, and BlackRock Inc., which has an executive on the artificial intelligence startup's board, are joining forces with one of its chief rivals. Microsoft Corp., the biggest backer of Sam Altman's OpenAI, and BlackRock Inc., which has an executive on the artificial intelligence startup's board, are joining forces with one of its chief rivals. Abu Dhabi's MGX, Microsoft and BlackRock said Elon Musk's xAI is joining their effort to build $30 billion worth of data centers and other artificial intelligence infrastructure. The AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp., which was already named as a technical adviser to the group when it was announced last year, is also formally joining, according to a statement on Wednesday that didn't detail member commitments. Microsoft, which has invested about $13 billion in OpenAI, has increasingly been developing AI outside of that partnership. The software giant has created in-house AI models that it believes can compete with OpenAI, Bloomberg News reported this month. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, has meanwhile publicly feuded with Altman over the company's efforts to shift to a for-profit structure. MGX has also backed OpenAI, poured money into xAI, and is among entities helping bankroll US President Donald Trump's $100 billion AI investment plan dubbed Stargate. It's overseen by one of the world's most influential dealmakers -- Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan -- who met Trump in the US this week. The capital demands and enthusiasm for AI have prompted a range of companies and investors to forge alliances to build some of the biggest data center campuses in the world. Sheikh Tahnoon planned to talk with Trump about increasing Emirati investment in the US, technology and energy, Bloomberg News has reported. Get the Mideast Money newsletter, a weekly look at the intersection of wealth and power in the region. The Microsoft-backed group will be renamed the AI Infrastructure Partnership, or AIP, and focus on infrastructure investments -- including energy projects -- mostly in the US, with a portion of the funds to be deployed in partner countries, according to the companies. The plan foresees bringing on additional investors. Clients, including pensions and insurers, are eager for such long-term infrastructure projects, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said in the statement. BlackRock and Microsoft last year unveiled the coalition in partnership with MGX and Bayo Ogunlesi's Global Infrastructure Partners. The companies said at the time they would seek $30 billion of private equity capital over an unspecified time frame and eventually leverage as much as $100 billion in potential investments. The consortium said energy suppliers NextEra Energy Inc. and GE Vernova Inc. have "agreed to collaborate with AIP to accelerate the scaling of critical and diverse energy solutions for AI data centers." In January, the two companies announced a partnership to capitalize on the surge in spending for AI data centers. The rush to invest in AI has had enormous impact on global electricity demand. By 2034, energy consumption from data centers is expected to top 1,580 terawatt hours, as much as used in India today, Bloomberg reported last year.

NVIDIA And Elon Musk's xAI Join BlackRock, Microsoft Led AI Infrastructure Partnership - BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), GE Vernova (NYSE:GEV)

Our government trade tracker caught Pelosi's 169% AI winner. Discover how to track all 535 Congress member stock trades today. On Wednesday, BlackRock Inc BLK announced that along with its subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft Corp MSFT, and MGX, has given major updates to the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), a collective initiative aimed at developing next-generation AI data centers and energy solutions. This collaboration will include the addition of tech giants NVIDIA Corp NVDA and Elon Musk's AI venture xAI, further solidifying the partnership's leadership in AI infrastructure. Also Read: NIO And CATL To Build China's Largest Battery Swapping Network NVIDIA will maintain its position as a technical advisor, contributing its AI computing and hardware knowledge. The company's participation will support the platform in rolling out AI data center infrastructure. This collective is focused on broadening and advancing AI capabilities, with a specific emphasis on creating energy-efficient solutions for AI data centers. Today, NVIDIA announced products, including Blackwell Ultra, Rubin, and co-packaged optics technology that enables data centers to deploy more GPUs. Nvidia has consistently achieved roughly a 4x boost in AI computing power with each new generation, from Hopper in 2022 to Blackwell in 2024 and the expected Rubin in 2026. Further boosting this initiative, GE Vernova Inc. GEV and NextEra Energy Inc. NEE have joined the partnership, promising to contribute their resources to scaling energy solutions essential for AI infrastructure. GE Vernova will also play a key role in supply chain planning and delivering cutting-edge energy solutions to support AI data centers. Since its launch in September 2024, AIP has already attracted strong interest from investors and corporations. With an initial target to unlock $30 billion in capital, the partnership expects to generate up to $100 billion in total investment potential, including debt financing. These funds will focus on building critical AI infrastructure, driving economic growth, and advancing digital and energy capabilities. The partnership's investments will initially prioritize AI data centers in the United States and other OECD countries. Read Next: Siemens To Slash 6,000 Jobs As Demand Slows In Germany And China Photo via Shutterstock BLKBlackRock Inc $962.130.37% Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full Score Edge Rankings Momentum80.00 Growth73.63 Quality75.40 Value3.26 Price Trend Short Medium Long Overview GEVGE Vernova Inc $330.243.54% MSFTMicrosoft Corp $387.431.02% NEENextEra Energy Inc $70.800.14% NVDANVIDIA Corp $117.301.62% This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Nvidia, xAI to Join BlackRock, Microsoft, and MGX to Develop AI Infrastructure

GE Vernova and NextEra Energy will develop sustainable power solutions to support AI-driven data centers. Nvidia and xAI have joined the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), an investment fund led by BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and Abu Dhabi's MGX to expand AI infrastructure in the US. The partnership aims to accelerate AI infrastructure development, particularly in data centers and energy solutions. Also Read: AI: Google Health AI Updates, xAI Acquires GenAI Video Startup, Mistral Releases Small AI Model AIP's Mission The AIP was formed in September last year with an initial goal of investing over USD 30 billion in AI-related projects, with capital from investors, asset owners, and corporations. This, in turn, will mobilise up to USD 100 billion in total investment potential, including debt financing. Role of Nvidia, GE Vernova and NextEra Energy Nvidia will continue as AIP's technical advisor, leveraging its expertise in AI computing and data center technologies. Meanwhile, energy giants GE Vernova and NextEra Energy will collaborate on developing sustainable power solutions to support AI-driven data centers. "GE Vernova will also work with AIP and its partners on supply chain planning and in delivering innovative and high efficiency energy solutions." BlackRock noted. "By investing in next-generation AI data centers and energy infrastructure, the companies said in a joint statement that "AIP is not just expanding capacity -- it is shaping the future of AI-driven economic growth. The addition of Nvidia and xAI reinforces AIP's commitment to scaling an open architecture platform and fostering a broad ecosystem that supports a diverse range of partners on a non-exclusive basis." The companies said AIP's investments will primarily focus on the US as well as OECD and US partner countries, driving AI innovation, economic expansion, and the advancement of critical digital and energy infrastructure. Also Read: Oracle UK Investment, ServiceNow AI Agents, Google AI Chip, Tech Mahindra-Google Cloud Partnership Leaders on the Future of AI Infrastructure Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of MGX, said, "Artificial Intelligence is not just an industry of the future, it underpins the future. As we welcome new partners to the AI Infrastructure Partnership, we will accelerate innovation and technological breakthroughs to achieve transformational productivity gains across the global economy. Our singular focus is accelerating AI's responsible and inclusive development for the benefit of humanity." Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said, "The global buildout of AI infrastructure will benefit every company and country that wants to achieve economic growth and unlock solutions to the world's greatest challenges. AI factories built on Nvidia's full-stack AI infrastructure will convert data into intelligence that will accelerate every industry and help society achieve unimaginable breakthroughs." "AI infrastructure will play an increasingly critical role in driving economic growth across every industry and every region of the world," said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. "We're thrilled to welcome these new companies to the AI Infrastructure Partnership as we invest together to build the infrastructure of the future." Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, said, "AI has the potential to transform the global economy if we can build the necessary infrastructure to support it. We believe this unparalleled partnership of leading global companies across the AI ecosystem brings technology expertise together with private capital to meet this demand and creates unique investment opportunities for our clients. This partnership also demonstrates the powerful combination of BlackRock's global relationships with GIP's infrastructure capabilities." "Since we launched this partnership in September, the momentum we have achieved reinforces the need for significant private capital to fund investments in essential infrastructure, particularly to support the continued development of AI," said Bayo Ogunlesi, Chairman and CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners. "With today's announcement, we are proud to welcome our new partners to AIP. Together, we look forward to focusing on our joint ambition to enhance AI innovation and economic growth." John Ketchum, Chairman and CEO of NextEra Energy, said, "In order to realise the full potential of Artificial Intelligence we must develop and support the energy infrastructure and data centers that will fuel this technology. Doing this will require an all forms of energy solution that leverages ready-now renewables and battery storage coupled with gas-fired and nuclear generation in the future. Our collaboration with GE Vernova and AIP is intended to get as many electrons onto the grid as quickly and most cost effectively as possible." "The jobs and economies of tomorrow will be built on the infrastructure we develop today to support the rapid growth of AI," said GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik. "Our company is focused on an all-of-the-above approach with our customers to meet this unprecedented demand, utilizing gas, nuclear, wind and more, while continuing to drive innovation to reduce emissions. We look forward to working with AIP and its partners, a group that brings substantial capability and efficiency to this critical work." Also Read: Microsoft President Welcomes The Golden Opportunity for American AI Major AI Infrastructure Investments in 2025 The announcement follows a wave of significant AI infrastructure investments in 2025. Microsoft has committed USD 80 billion to AI data centers, while CoreWeave secured an USD 11.9 billion deal with OpenAI. French telecom group Iliad has pledged USD 3 billion to expand AI infrastructure in Europe.

Nvidia and xAI Sign On to $30 Billion AI Infrastructure Fund | PYMNTS.com

Elon Musk's xAI and chipmaker Nvidia have joined a $30 billion artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project. The AI Infrastructure Fund, backed by BlackRock, Microsoft and Abu Dhabi AI investment group MGX, announced the two-high profile sign-ups Wednesday (March 19), noting that their ultimate goal was to raise up to $100 billion for artificial intelligence (AI) development. "The global buildout of AI infrastructure will benefit every company and country that wants to achieve economic growth and unlock solutions to the world's greatest challenges," Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in the announcement. "AI factories built on Nvidia full-stack AI infrastructure will convert data into intelligence that will accelerate every industry and help society achieve unimaginable breakthroughs," he added. Microsoft and Blackrock launched the fund last year, aiming to raise money to construct data centers and find sources of power for those facilities. The announcement comes one day after Huang told attendees at the Nvidia developer conference that massive computing power is required to enable the current trajectory of AI as it moves toward agents and reasoning models. "AI is going through an inflection point," the CEO said at the event, nicknamed "AI Woodstock," adding that the shift to agentic and reasoning means "the amount of computation necessary to train those models, and to inference those models, has grown tremendously." Traditional large language models need much less computing power than AI agents and reasoning models, but they also answer immediately. Reasoning models need much more power because they go back and forth reasoning among themselves before responding, which in many cases would take longer. "In order for us to keep the model responsive, so that we don't lose our patience waiting for it to think, we now have to compute 10 times faster," Huang said. "The amount of computation we have to do is 100 times more, easily." As PYMNTS noted, Huang was making the case that the AI industry will still require a lot of Nvidia GPUs following a flurry of news in January surrounding the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. That company said it had trained its high-performing foundation AI model using only 2,000 slower Nvidia H800 chips instead of typically tens of thousands or more for companies like OpenAI. The BlackRock/Microsoft fund isn't the only multi-billion dollar effort to finance AI infrastructure projects. In January, SoftBank and OpenAI unveiled their "Stargate" project to develop AI infrastructure, with plans to spend up to $100 billion.

Musk's xAI startup joins Microsoft-BlackRock US$30 billion AI fund

Microsoft Corp., the biggest backer of Sam Altman's OpenAI, and BlackRock Inc., which has an executive on the artificial intelligence startup's board, are joining forces with one of his chief rivals. Microsoft and BlackRock said Wednesday that Elon Musk's xAI is joining their effort to build US$30 billion worth of data centers and other artificial intelligence infrastructure. The AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp., which was already named as a technical adviser to the group when it was announced last year, is also formally joining, according to a statement that didn't detail member commitments. Microsoft, which has invested about US$13 billion in OpenAI, has increasingly been developing AI outside of that partnership. The software giant has created in-house AI models that it believes can compete with OpenAI, Bloomberg reported this month. Musk, also a co-founder of OpenAI, has meanwhile publicly feuded with Altman over the company's efforts to shift to a for-profit structure. The capital demands and enthusiasm for AI have prompted a range of companies and investors to forge alliances to build some of the biggest data center campuses in the world. US President Donald Trump has touted hundreds of billions of dollars worth of commitments from firms including Softbank Group Corp. and OpenAI, which are behind a US$100 billion AI investment plan dubbed Stargate. The Microsoft-backed group will be renamed the AI Infrastructure Partnership, or AIP, and focus on infrastructure investments -- including energy projects -- mostly in the US, with a portion of the funds to be deployed in partner countries, according to the companies. The plan foresees bringing on additional investors. Clients, including pensions and insurers, are eager for such long-term infrastructure projects, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said in the statement. BlackRock and Microsoft last year unveiled the coalition in partnership with MGX, an United Arab Emirates investment vehicle that is also involved in Stargate, and Bayo Ogunlesi's Global Infrastructure Partners. The companies said at the time they would seek US$30 billion of private equity capital over an unspecified time frame and eventually leverage as much as US$100 billion in potential investments. The consortium said energy suppliers NextEra Energy Inc. and GE Vernova Inc. have "agreed to collaborate with AIP to accelerate the scaling of critical and diverse energy solutions for AI data centers." In January, the two companies announced a partnership to capitalize on the surge in spending for AI data centers. The rush to invest in AI has had enormous impact on global electricity demand. By 2034, energy consumption from data centers is expected to top 1,580 terawatt hours, as much as used in India today, Bloomberg reported last year.

Nvidia, Elon Musk's xAI team up with Microsoft, BlackRock to boost AI...

Nvidia and Elon Musk's xAI have joined a consortium backed by Microsoft, investment fund MGX and BlackRock to expand AI infrastructure in the US, the companies said Wednesday, as a global race to dominate the nascent technology intensifies. The group, formed last year with a goal to initially invest more than $30 billion in AI-related projects, is one of the biggest efforts to bankroll data centers and energy facilities needed to power AI applications such as ChatGPT. The additions come two months after President Trump announced Stargate, a private sector AI infrastructure initiative backed by SoftBank Group, OpenAI and Oracle, with plans to mobilize up to $500 billion. Investors have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the rest expected over the next four years. The consortium - which includes BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners - on Wednesday renamed itself as AI Infrastructure Partnership. Nvidia, a technical advisor, will continue in the role. Training AI models and large-scale data processing require huge computational power, which increases energy consumption. To meet the demands, tech companies are deploying thousands of chips in clusters, driving a surge for specialized data centers. To fund the computing and power needs, the consortium has been looking to raise money from investors, asset owners and corporations, with a goal to mobilize up to $100 billion, including debt financing. "AIP has attracted significant capital and partner interest since its inception in September," the group said, but did not disclose the total funds raised so far. GE Vernova and utility firm NextEra Energy will also be a part of the group, it said, adding the renewable energy company will work on supply-chain planning and high efficiency energy solutions. AIP said its investments will also focus on US partners and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.