Spain’s ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (OTCPK:ACSAF) (OTCPK:ACSAY), and BlackRock’s (BLK) Global Infrastructure Partners are forming a 50-50 joint venture to develop an initial €2B, 1.7 gigawatt portfolio of data centers.
ACS said that after closing, the new data center development platform will consist of its existing 1.7 GW portfolio of data center assets under development in Europe, the U.S., and Australia.
The transaction values these assets (on 100% basis) at about €2B, consisting of a cash payment of around €1B, plus initial earn-outs of up to €1B, contingent on achieving commercial milestones, according to the company.
ACS noted that an additional earn-out of up to €200M may also be earned from other pipeline projects currently under analysis.
In addition to the existing portfolio of assets contributed by ACS to the platform, ACS is reviewing a pipeline of potential projects exceeding 11 GW across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, the company added.
The announcement comes after the newspaper Expansion reported on Thursday that the companies were close to reaching an agreement on the matter. The report noted that the partnership deal could be worth €23B, consisting of €5B in equity capital to be contributed progressively, and €18B in debt.
U.S. tech giants Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META) are spending billions of dollars to build AI infrastructure, and some have even raised their expectations for the next year as the AI race heats up.