Microsoft and BlackRock are among a coalition of companies joining forces to raise up to $100 billion for the development of data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence, along with the energy infrastructure necessary to support them. This collaboration, known as the Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP), was revealed in a press release on Tuesday. Other key participants include Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), an infrastructure investor being acquired by BlackRock, and MGX, a technology-focused investor based in the United Arab Emirates. "We are dedicated to leveraging AI to foster innovation and promote growth across all sectors of the economy, " stated Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He emphasized that this initiative unites financial and industry leaders to establish sustainable infrastructure for the future. The consortium’s initial objective is to mobilize $30 billion in capital, with aspirations to eventually reach up to $100 billion, which will also include debt financing. Tech firms are in a fierce competition to construct data centers equipped with Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) capable of running generative AI models, such as those that power OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The high power consumption of these GPUs coupled with increasing demand has led to a bottleneck in the establishment of new facilities. Microsoft’s investment adds to the capital expenditures required for expanding its Azure public cloud infrastructure, which serves OpenAI and other AI clients. In July, Microsoft reported that its capital spending for the fiscal fourth quarter, which includes assets acquired through finance leases, reached $19 billion. Earlier this year, BlackRock revealed its plan to acquire GIP for $3 billion in cash along with roughly 12 million shares of BlackRock common stock. BlackRock announced last week its expectation that the deal will finalize on October 1.