BlackRock and IFM Investors are closing in on a potential USD 25 billion acquisition of Stack Infrastructure’s data centres in the Asia-Pacific region, underscoring the escalating competition among global investors for infrastructure supporting the artificial intelligence boom.
A consortium backed by BlackRock and IFM has entered exclusive talks to acquire the assets from Stack’s owner, Blue Owl Capital, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. According to those people, the portfolio may be worth between USD 20 billion and USD 25 billion.
The consortium includes the BlackRock-backed Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), which is preparing to conduct due diligence on the assets alongside IFM.
The parties are hoping to reach an agreement soon, although discussions remain ongoing and could be extended or ultimately fail to result in a transaction.
The potential transaction follows an earlier valuation in equity capital, with the potential to mobilise as much as USD 100 billion, more than the USD 30 billion that Blue Owl had been seeking for Stack’s Asia operations, according to Bloomberg.
AIP and IFM were among several potential bidders identified during the sale process, alongside groups including Brookfield Asset Management, KKR and DigitalBridge.
Stack’s Asia-Pacific footprint spans major technology markets, including Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Melbourne and Johor Bahru in Malaysia. The company currently lists one site in Johor Bahru with 216 megawatts of capacity, two Melbourne sites with a combined 432MW, a 78MW Osaka site, a 360MW Sydney site and a 36MW Tokyo site.
Those locations give the portfolio exposure to some of Asia-Pacific’s most established and rapidly expanding digital infrastructure markets.
Sydney, for example, has a mature hyperscale cloud ecosystem and established artificial intelligence deployments, while Melbourne has emerged as a major hyperscale corridor.
Stack describes its regional network as infrastructure designed to provide scalable capacity for hyperscale and enterprise customers.
The proposed deal comes as data centres have become one of the most closely watched areas of global infrastructure investment. The rapid expansion of generative AI and cloud computing is driving demand for computing capacity, while developers and investors face constraints around electricity availability, land, connectivity and permitting.
BlackRock has increasingly positioned itself at the intersection of infrastructure and AI. Its AIP platform was launched by BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, Microsoft and Abu Dhabi-backed MGX in 2024 to invest in data centres and supporting energy infrastructure.
The partnership initially targeted $30 billion of equity capital, with the potential to mobilise as much as USD 100 billion including debt.
The platform has since attracted additional strategic and financial investors, including Nvidia, Kuwait Investment Authority and Temasek. Its first major transaction was the acquisition of Aligned Data Centers, a deal that valued the US data centre operator at about USD 40 billion.
The acquisition was completed in July, with the consortium committing an additional USD 5 billion of growth capital to expand Aligned’s AI-ready capacity.
The Stack negotiations would extend that strategy into Asia-Pacific, where demand for data centre capacity is being shaped by the region’s large populations, growing digital economies and increasing use of AI applications.
For IFM, the potential transaction would add another major digital infrastructure investment to a portfolio managed on behalf of institutional investors. The Australian infrastructure manager has been among the global funds seeking exposure to long-duration assets linked to structural growth in digital services.
The proposed transaction’s scale also underscores the growing recognition of data centres as strategic infrastructure rather than mere property assets. Their economics depend not only on buildings and equipment but also on access to reliable electricity, fibre networks, cooling systems and customers capable of supporting long-term capacity commitments.
Blue Owl has itself been expanding its exposure to the digital infrastructure sector. In August, funds managed by the alternative asset manager led a USD 2.4 billion financing for IREN to support its acquisition of Nvidia’s accelerated-computing infrastructure for an AI data centre campus in Canada.
The Stack sale therefore comes at a time when infrastructure investors are competing for assets that can benefit from the long-term expansion of AI and cloud computing. If completed, the transaction would rank among the largest data centre deals in the Asia-Pacific region and provide BlackRock and IFM with a substantial regional platform at a pivotal stage in the build-out of AI infrastructure.
For now, however, the transaction remains subject to due diligence and negotiations, meaning the final valuation, structure and completion remain uncertain.