Blackstone has a record $187 billion in “dry powder” ready to apply to new investments, according to its recent report for the full year 2022. Of that, it is ready to “play offense” with $14 billion in its real-estate investment trust (REIT), said the company's head of Americas real estate Nadeem Meghji during a stockholders' meeting. He added that “there are going to be some interesting deployment opportunities," referring to data center opportunities within that group.

The report outlined $226 billion in inflows during the year, including $43 in the fourth quarter. Company CEO and Chairman Stephen Schwarzman also noted that total assets under management grew to a record $975 billion, up 11% year over year. REIT inflows amounted to $90 billion over the course of the year, with about $48 billion deployed.

Recent interest in generative AI and the headline grabber ChatGPT have spiked interest in the digital infrastructure that will be needed to support an anticipated massive growth of data in coming year. Data centers thus emerge as an area of high interest to investors, who can view it simultaneously as real estate, capital investment, and a bet on the tech industry.

IDCA research has found an enormous disparity in server fabrics among the 147 nations covered in is EESG Digital Readiness of Nations Index. Each nation has its own unique situation, story, and specific opportunities and risk profile. The server fabrics are interconnected with existing and planned submarine cable service, mobility ecosystems, growth of data-intensive applications and environments, and the personal and business use of technology overall.

Image from Blackstone.