(Sydney) US investment firm Blackstone announced on Wednesday that it has reached a $16 billion deal to buy Australian data centre operator AirTrunk as part of a strategy to acquire artificial intelligence assets in the Asia-Pacific region.
This purchase is “Blackstone’s largest investment in the Asia-Pacific region,” the American group stressed.
Operating in the booming cloud computing and artificial intelligence sectors, AirTrunk operates 11 massive data centres in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. The group was founded by Robin Khuda, who was born in Bangladesh and came to Australia to study at university.
For Blackstone Chairman Jon Gray, the acquisition of AirTrunk is “another crucial step” taken by the fund which “seeks to become the leading global investor in digital infrastructure across this entire ecosystem, including data centers, energy and associated services.”
The deal, also signed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, still needs regulatory approval and will be one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in Australia this year.