BlackRock, Nvidia, and Microsoft to Acquire Data Centre Owner for $40 Billion

BlackRock, Nvidia, Microsoft, and xAI to acquire Aligned for $40 billion.

A consortium of investors, including BlackRock, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Elon Musk’s xAI, has agreed to purchase Aligned from Macquarie Asset Management for $40 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approval. The company will retain its headquarters in Dallas, Texas, and its current CEO, Andrew Schaap.

Aligned constructs and operates large campuses for cloud and enterprise clients with a total capacity exceeding 5 GW.

The buyers are part of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership consortium. This was established last year by BlackRock and MGX to invest in AI infrastructure development projects.

Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, noted that the $40 billion deal implies a price per megawatt of capacity of approximately $8 million—significantly higher compared to public mining companies like Iris Energy (IREN), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Cipher Mining (CIFR), and Hut 8 (HUT), where this figure typically stands around $3 million.

BLACKROCK & NVIDIA IN $40 B DATA CENTER TAKEOVER:

Macquarie is selling Aligned Data Centers for $40B, with press reports noting the platform is “poised to expand its capacity to over 5GW.”

>Implies a valuation of roughly $8M per MW of total data-center capacity (operating +… pic.twitter.com/hkwNjgVe8H

— matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) October 15, 2025

“If miners can access project financing, it will provide them with a capital increase of 150% to 500%,” Sigel said.

Back in October 2024, analysts at JPMorgan stated that cryptocurrency miners had approximately nine months to strike favourable deals with major cloud providers and AI firms for data centre and high-performance computing services.

In August 2025, TeraWulf signed a 10-year contract with the cloud AI platform Fluidstack. Supported by Google, the miner will provide about 250 MW for a total of $3.7 billion.