Google partners with Blackstone in AI infrastructure push

Google and Blackstone are launching a new artificial intelligence cloud company, marking another sign that Wall Street is becoming increasingly involved in financing the AI infrastructure boom, News.Az reports, citing Yahoo Finance.

The joint venture will offer data center capacity, operations, networking services, and access to Google Cloud’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) as a compute-as-a-service product.

The aim is to give customers another way to use Google’s custom AI chips, similar to offerings from cloud provider CoreWeave.

Blackstone said it will make an initial $5 billion equity investment through its funds. The company expects the first 500 megawatts of power capacity to come online by 2027. While exact ownership details were not disclosed, a person familiar with the deal said Blackstone will be the majority shareholder.

The announcement highlights how the physical infrastructure behind AI computing—especially data centers and power capacity—has become a major focus for investment in both technology and finance.

Major tech companies are projected to spend more than $700 billion this year on capital expenditures tied to AI expansion. However, demand is still outpacing supply. Private asset manager Ares recently estimated that the opportunity in third-party data centers alone could reach $900 billion.

For Blackstone, the deal represents a further expansion into AI infrastructure. In late April, the firm announced a new West Coast unit dedicated to investing in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Through its real estate and infrastructure funds, Blackstone already owns major North American data center operator QTS and has investments in AI-related companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX, which also owns xAI.

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman recently said the firm believes it is “the largest investor in AI-related infrastructure in the world.”

Google has already struck multiple agreements allowing companies to use its TPUs. Meta reportedly signed a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar deal to access the chips, while Anthropic has also adopted Google’s processors.

The partnership also reflects growing competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia faces increasing pressure from hyperscalers like Google and Amazon, which offers its own Trainium chips through Amazon Web Services.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said the company’s chip business grew 40% quarter over quarter, with an annual revenue run rate exceeding $20 billion. He also noted that if treated as a standalone business, the segment could represent a $50 billion run rate.

Competition in the AI infrastructure space continues to intensify, with companies such as Cerebras Systems attracting strong investor interest during its recent IPO amid surging demand for AI computing power.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev