AI giants to acquire Aligned Data Centers for $40B, boosting Valley data center development
Story Highlights
- AI consortium to acquire Aligned Data Centers for $40 billion
- Aligned operates 50 campuses and 78 data centers globally
- Deal expected to close in first half of 2026
A data center developer with campuses established and planned across the Valley is set be acquired by a group of major players in the artificial intelligence sector.
A consortium that includes huge companies like BlackRock Inc. and Nvidia Corp. has reached an agreement to buy Plano, Texas-based Aligned Data Centers LLC for $40 billion in one of the biggest deals ever in the global data center market.
Sydney, Australia-based Macquarie Asset Management will sell its entire stake in Aligned to the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), MGX and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners in the deal announced early on Oct. 15. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026.
Aligned has been a player in the Valley market, with its hand in projects that include an advanced cooling lab on its north Phoenix data center campus — one of three campuses it operates in the Valley along with Chandler and Glendale.
The company also late last year paid $86.52 million for 100 acres in Glendale for a new multiphase, four-building data center campus. A few months before that, it acquired 80 acres for $43.2 million in neighboring Peoria at 75th and Northern avenues in the Peoria Logistics Park project for a potential project.